The End of the World Should not be Pretty

Handcuffed and forced to march into the city, I couldn’t help but feel let down by all the books and movies about the end of the world. The apocalypse was not supposed to be pretty. The end of the world was supposed to be gritty, chaotic, and brutal. Where were the gas masks, the piles of rubble, the radiation twisted beasts?

The end came almost ten years ago, however, at the time no one knew. I certainly had no idea but then, I was only fifteen years old when the aliens came calling. Once again, the books and movies let us all down, or so we thought. The aliens didn’t attack the human race, there were no aliens bursting out of chests, no ominous countdowns. They offered us help and peace, with no strings attached…

But there were strings, strings that the aliens wove around us in the name of peace. Strings that wrapped around our world with every gift they gave us.

First, they brought us new technologies and new medical practices. Soon our world was prospering, illness had been irradicated and the people were happy. There was no more poverty, or hunger, everyone had everything they needed. Our cities became dazzling monuments of beauty and peace. You would think that this would stop wars and conflict… but human beings are human beings, after all. Wars broke out and people still fought. The aliens offered a solution to this as well.

By now people trusted them, so when they offered what they called “the process” people were happy to line up for it. This “process” was supposed to stop people from wanting to fight. It was supposed to bring peace. Most people believed it was some sort of drug, but it wasn’t a drug, it turns out it was an organism that needed an intelligent host. This organism controls the host, and the host no longer has a will of their own. We didn’t know any of that at first though, no, we just knew they had something that could stop the fighting. In the beginning, “the process” was voluntary and didn’t seem dangerous or sinister.

It started as voluntary but then people creating war and conflict were forced to undergo this “process.” The world took a collective sigh of relieve. Peace. Finally, the world was truly at peace. Then the truth began to come out. The people that were forced into “the process” had become zombies, not the walking corpse kind of zombies that could infect you with a bite but zombies all the same. After the process, there was no personality, no memories, no love, there was nothing. The person that had been through “the process” was wiped away and what was left was simply a blank canvas. Apparently human beings were a little too rowdy for the universe, and the aliens came offering peace, but what they had always planned to do was crush the human race. They didn’t need violence, they simply used control. The aliens were not controlled by this organism, no, they brought it as a special gift just for earthlings.

Now, I am here sitting in a cell awaiting my doom grumbling to myself because even their prisons are beautiful. From the barred window I can see a garden filled with flowers and the place is pristine. I would be happier if the place was gloomy and dark, at least that would be in line with what was going to happen next. I know there is nothing I can do to stop it, and all I can do is think about what I will be losing. I pulled a silver heart shaped locket from under my shirt and studied the picture. There I was in miniature next to a handsome man with black hair and laughing green eyes. When he had asked me to marry him, he had given me this delicate silver locket with a rose engraved on it when he gave me the ring. I didn’t have the ring anymore. I sold it so I could eat, but not the locket. Never the locket. It was all I had left of him, and I would rather starve than sell it. But now… now it was worthless. Sitting in this cell left me with time to think. I was never meant to be a rebel, even when things got bad. I didn't think this future was in the cards for me.

Once people figured out what was happening, they resisted the aliens, and then, they were caught and forced through “the process,” but that didn’t stop the resistance. Human beings are extremely tenacious, and injustice gets stuck in our craw. Now though there aren’t many humans left, the processed zombies don’t count. I don’t know if the process can be reversed, and I will probably never find out. “The process” was now mandatory and if you chose not to take it you had to live outside the cities. Like I said, I never planned to be a rebel. I had lived outside the cities, but at first, I had simply survived. I had lived with him. He had fought, of course, because that is who he is… or who he was anyway. Once he was taken though, I had changed my mind. I joined the fight. For him. Once again, I looked at the picture in the locket. For what they had done to him.

My reveries were interrupted by footsteps coming near my cell. The door to my cell opened and a man entered. He had dark hair and green eyes, the eyes that had once held laughter held nothing now. He was a husk of the man I knew, a living robot. He looked at me quizzically, “You have not been harmed,” he told me in a voice with no emotion, “why do you weep?”

I hadn’t even realized I was crying. “I don’t want to become like you,” which was the truth, but not why I was crying. I couldn’t bear to tell him the real reason and he wouldn’t understand, not anymore.

“You should not have fought then, if you remained peaceful…”

“Everyone in the city is required to go through “the process,” you are lying,” I snarled at him, anger had suddenly replaced sorrow.

He was unfazed by my accusation, “the cities are places of serenity and peace, living here requires peace in your soul,” his voice was a monotone. “However, anyone who refuses this peace can live outside of the cities provided they do not bring conflict to those who only want peace.”

“What you have is not peace,” I don’t know why I was arguing with him. He was not the man I knew, he was nothing now. A shell of my love.

“You will change your mind when you have been through the process,” he intoned.

“No!” I screamed, “I won’t. I won’t be me anymore. You are not you anymore. You were funny and smart and… ”

The zombie in front of me smiled which stopped me cold. It wasn’t a real smile. His lips bent up, but it was a frightening expression lacking emotion and then he said, “I am at peace.”

There was a large bang in the distance and the room I was in shuttered. My jailer looked back down the hallway. Big mistake. I kicked him in the nuts as hard as I could. The alien in his head controlled his mind and emotions, but his body was still that of a man. Symbiosis had its down sides. He gasped and bent over, and I swept his legs out from under him. “Your peace is a lie,” I told him just before I kicked him in the head. I didn’t have it in me to kill him, but I couldn’t have him coming after me. I searched his body for the keys and got the cuffs off and then I ran. l I didn’t know if I could make it out of the city, but I was sure as hell going to try. I didn’t want their peace. Not now, and not ever. I would fight until the end.