Doomsday

Savannah had been watching one of The Real Housewives shows when the television automatically switched to the breaking news broadcast. She dropped her mug which was filled with black coffee. She hadn’t even heard the glass break, only the ringing in her ears. The announcement was simply that it was the end of the world.

"Breaking News: Unknown object headed towards Earth. Most likely a meteor. Meteorologists are saying we have approximately 24 hours. Hold on to your loved ones. Tell the people you love that you love them. Do something you’ve always wanted to do. We don’t have much time. This is our last day on Earth. How will you spend it? This is Ted Gibbins. Goodbye, New York."

The news anchor was crying. Savannah’s heart was racing as she stared at the coffee whirling around her red toenails like a pool of ink. She began to pick up the glass and then decided that it didn’t matter in the end. She called her mother who she didn’t have a good relationship with, but she told her she loved her anyway.

Savannah didn’t know what to do in this moment. She was always a problem solver. There was a disaster? She could fix it. She always stayed inside the lines. She even started to think about what she could do to stop the world from caving in. When she couldn’t solve it, she began to cry. Her chest felt heavy, like someone was purposely sitting on it. Savannah hadn’t had a panic attack since she was young. For whatever reason, her only solution was to start packing. She lived in New York and her mother lived in Arizona. She hadn’t even considered that planes wouldn’t be running. For whatever reason, she kept packing in a hysterical manner.

She threw everything she had into a large suitcase; shirts, pants, shoes, kitchenware. She was moving around her Brooklyn apartment like a tornado. Savannah set a ladder up to her bedroom wall so she could reach the top shelf of her book case. She grabbed her copy of The Great Gatsby and threw it on the bed below her, as if she had time to read a book in an apocalypse. As she reached the bottom of the ladder, she noticed something had fallen out of her book.

It was a gold, heart-shaped locket on a delicate chain. The sight of this necklace unlocked a memory for Savannah. It must have been a decade since she’d seen this locket. She was only a kid when he had given it to her. This must have been a sign. The last she’d heard, he was living in the city and was only a few neighborhoods away. She didn’t have much time.

Savannah remembered what the news anchor had said. This is our last day on Earth. How will you spend it? She picked up the necklace and fastened the clasp. She ran out the door of her apartment without locking it.

* * *

Chaos was erupting in the streets of Brooklyn. Everything was on fire, people were driving recklessly, crowds were breaking windows and stealing anything in sight. There were no rules anymore. The cry heard around the world had infiltrated what was left of society. Savannah had known there wasn’t much time left for the world. After World War III and global warming had begun to noticeably take a toll on the world, she knew they were doomed. She just didn’t think it would be a meteor that would destroy them. She thought that if it wasn’t for this meteor, humanity would have demolished the world eventually.

Savannah saw a random Honda on the street with the driver’s door wide open. The keys were in the engine, but the car was completely abandoned. She didn’t feel right about it, but she stole the car anyway. There were no rules anymore. Without looking at the stoplights, she drove to Dumbo, clutching the locket around her neck.

She pulled up to his brownstone apartment that was crawling with ivy and sat in the car for a few minutes. She realized how silly and impractical this was. She considered driving away. But, where would she go? It wasn’t safe to stay out here, so she got out of the stolen vehicle and made her way up the steps of his apartment. She could only hope he still lived here.

She pounded on the door with her fist and then pressed the buzzer and spoke into the intercom. "Jon," she cried, "It’s me."

Within moments, Jon answered the door. She could see the disbelief on his face and that he had also been crying. She couldn’t tell if he was happy or underwhelmed that she had shown up to his apartment on his last day on earth. She hadn’t seen Jon since high school, over a decade ago. He looked different now—a good different—like a grown man. He had a beard and everything.

"Sav," he managed to say. She began to cry and he embraced her as if he would never let her go again.

Inside, he poured them both a glass of whiskey. He made himself a whiskey neat and added ice to hers. She liked that he remembered her drink. It was getting darker now. He closed all of the windows and the curtains to protect them from the chaos outside.

"How did you know that I’d be here?" he said.

"I didn’t," Savannah shrugged. She didn’t want to admit that she thought of the locket as a sign to go to him.

"I can’t believe you still have that thing, after all this time," Jon smiled, looking at the locket. The news was playing on his television in the background. Even though it was muted, it was loud.

"This is crazy, isn’t it?" Jon said. "It’s actually the end of the world."

"It’s like we’re living in one of those bad movies you used to watch," Savannah joked.

Jon laughed, "I don’t think Tom Cruise is going to be able to save us." They both took a sip of their whiskey.

"I’m glad you came," he said.

"Me too," said Savannah, "It’s funny. After all this time, you were the first one I thought of to run to at a time like this."

Jon half-smiled. "So, what are we going to do for Doomsday?" he said this lightly. He always knew how to make light of any given situation. Savannah didn’t know what she wanted to do. She couldn’t do most of what was on her bucket list. Paris was out of the question and no tattoo artist in the world was going to tattoo a butterfly on her ankle when the sky was falling down.

"Let’s drink," she answered, raising her glass.

"I can agree to that," said Jon. "First, I think we should go out in style. There’s a thrift store across the street. I hear there may be a sale," he shrugged. Savannah smiled and followed Jon out the door.

No one was at this vintage shop because people weren’t worried about clothes. Savannah and Jon laid low, avoiding chaotic crowds and plunder.

"How’s this?" Jon asked, holding up a brown suit that was way too big for his frame.

"Perfect," Savannah laughed. Savannah picked out a red velvety gown with spaghetti straps. They got dressed in the shop and left their clothes behind. On the way back to Jon’s apartment, they broke into a liquor store and took two bottles of the most expensive champagne and a pack of cigarettes. If someone had told Savannah yesterday that she’d be stealing liquor and vintage clothes with her high school boyfriend the next day, she would have never believed them.

Savannah and Jon decided to drink champagne in their fancy clothes on their last day on Earth. Jon cut Savannah’s black hair in the bathroom because she always wanted to know what she looked like with a bob and a fringe. Savannah gave Jon a buzz cut and they laughed the entire time.

"You smoke now?" Jon asked as Savannah lit a cigarette.

"No," she laughed, "but, I think it’s a little too late for me to die from lung cancer." Jon smoked one too. They were both extremely drunk by now. Savannah could always tell when Jon was drunk because he’d walk with a little limp, like a pirate. This always made her laugh.

Savannah and Jon sat on the couch and watched reruns of The Office on Netflix. Savannah didn’t understand how Jon was sitting there and laughing at the jokes like it was any other day. It was now hitting Savannah. It was about to be over. All of it.

"You okay?" Jon said. Savannah shook her head and let a single tear fall down her cheek. Jon brushed it away with his thumb.

"Do you want to dance?" he asked. Savannah looked at him like he was crazy. He begged with his eyes as he stood up and held out his hand. Savannah finally gave in.

Jon placed a vinyl on his record player and played Something by The Beatles. He remembered her favorite song. Or, Savannah thought, it could just be a coincidence. If there was one thing that Savannah remembered about Jon, it was that there were never coincidences with him.

The two of them embraced each other and swayed to the music. Jon kissed her and it brought Savannah back to a time when she felt safe. She began to cry.

"I’m sorry," Savannah said.

"For what?" Jon said, pulling away. At first, she didn’t know what she was sorry for either.

"For ending us. For not seeing it through. For not looking for you over the years, even when I wanted to," she admitted, pressing her forehead into his chest. She had gotten into an Ivy League after high school. He wanted to be an artist. Her mother didn’t think he had potential and she got into her head. Savannah always regretted that.

He lifted her chin with his fingers, "That was thirteen years ago. It’s been forgiven for a long time."

"I know. But, all this time we could have—

"Don’t," he said, holding her face between his hands, "Don’t do that. We aren’t going to talk about regrets in our last hours." They were both crying.

"Okay," she said simply.

"Okay," he agreed.

Through a parting in Jon’s bedroom curtains, Savannah and Jon watched the last sunset over the skyline of the brownstone buildings. They saw the world go dark. The electricity eventually went out, so they lit candles around his apartment. They tried to ignore the screaming from outside as they laid in bed, facing each other. Jon held Savannah’s hand tightly and for the first time all day, he had the look of fear in his eyes.

Savannah felt oddly calm. She kissed their interlocked hands, leaving a lipstick stain on each of their index fingers. She knew that at the end of the world, this was exactly where she wanted to be. There was a reason that the universe kept them apart for this long. The time apart had made this moment worth it. It created a veil of comfort for the time she needed it most.

It would be any minute now.

Savannah and Jon looked into each other’s eyes. They were trying not to blink because they didn’t know how quick it would be. The only thing they ever wanted to see again was each other.