The Awakening

First impressions are crucial, or so I’ve been told. Those first few seconds of meeting someone create an impression that will last a lifetime. All I can remember of Reeva are her heart shaped locket and her infectious smile. It’s been two years since the awakening when she was ripped from my arms. I still don’t know if she’s alive or not, but I still see her every night when I close my eyes. As soon as the darkness sets, I see those piercing brown eyes staring so deeply that it seems she sees the innermost, darkest depths of my soul. What I would give just for one more minute. But since it happened, it’s too dangerous to leave whatever shelter survivors were lucky to find before the bombs hit. I guess I should explain just what this great event is we refer to as an awakening. Two years ago, the world was hell, everybody was fighting everybody was wrong nobody was right. Politically correct is what we all strived to be. Anybody who dared go against the grain was brutally punished. Riots had become a way of life, murder was such a normal occurrence that eventually the detectives and police gave up trying to solve them, it was dangerous just to step foot outside your home. Eventually, country turned against country, ally against ally, and then the sirens started. It was a normal June night; it was my turn to make dinner, so I ordered pizza.

“The great Jake Evans can’t be bothered to make dinner for his amazing girlfriend” Reeva teased after she saw the pizza boxes.

“C’mon babe, would you rather eat greasy pizza or chicken that tastes like cardboard?”

“Hmmm, I guess you are a pretty bad cook” she sighed as she put a slice on a plate and grabbed a bottle of wine.

“I heard there was another bombing in the city last night. Maybe we should get farther away, we’re only 20 minutes outside the city Jake, I feel like we’re too close. The crime gets closer and closer every night.”

“20 minutes seems far enough to me.”

“If you say so, but just promise me you’ll at least think about moving, please Jake I am really getting nervous?”

“Sure”

I’ll always regret not taking her concerns more seriously. Although I guess it wouldn’t have helped if I had, because only 20 minutes later the sirens went off and the emergency broadcast started. We ran to a neighbor’s house 3 doors down, Tim is a great guy, let us know from the moment we moved in we could use his bomb shelter if anything ever happened. Even gave us a key to his house. I still wonder what happened to him, he wasn’t home when it happened, and he never came back. We managed to make it to the shelter just seconds before it started. One explosion after another, each shaking the ground more than the last. Lucky us the blast wasn’t nuclear, but that only made it easier for the enemy to invade. The bombs were just the first part.

About a week after the bombs hit, we were still waiting in the shelter, waiting for a rescue party. There was enough food to last six months, so we weren’t too worried. We spent our days playing scrabble and imagining what we would do when we were rescued. She wanted to call her mom and see if she was okay, I wanted to find an engagement ring and ask her to marry me. I never told her that though, I told her I wanted to find a real bed to sleep on. Maybe I should’ve just proposed while we were in the shelter.

Two weeks later we heard dogs and shouting voices. We started banging on the shelter door and screaming for help. Rescue had finally come… or so it seemed. It didn’t take us long to figure out that the bombs were a rouse to invade the eastern seaboard. Three countries set aside their differences to invade the United States and take any survivors hostage. Most got shipped to work camps, and the rest were executed on the spot. Reeva and I, we were the “lucky” ones. We were in the work camps tasked with cleaning up the mess our dear invaders made. All was going well, all things considered, until some of the other survivors decided to fight back.

In the heat of the moment Reeva and I joined the makeshift resistance and tried to fight our way out of the camp. Everything happened so fast. One minute we were running as fast as we could towards a gate that was left open in the chaos. The road past the gate connected to the woods, so we knew if we could just make it through that we would be able to escape and hopefully get to safety. Before we could get even halfway to the gate our captors came out of their barracks equipped with gas masks with rifles. Before we knew it, they were throwing tear gas all over the camp, blinding us and causing even more panic to break out. Between the tear gas and deafening gun fire, I guess we just couldn’t stay together. Through the chaos I made it to the gate and ran towards the woods as fast as I could. I thought she was behind me. I could’ve sworn I heard her footsteps right behind mine. But after I couldn’t run anymore, I turned around and she was gone.

Two years later and I still look for her every chance I get. Conditions in the states have only gotten worse as soon as the invasions succeeded America essentially became a battle ground. The world found out we were weak and took advantage. The camp isn’t there anymore, and that gives me hope. Hope that she made it out alive. Hope that she was rescued and is out there looking for me too. We call it the awakening because the invasion is the day we all realized the world is on fire. We call it the awakening because it is the day we all woke up to realize we’re living in the end.