The Light That Brought the World to Its Knees

Everything happened so suddenly, that bright inexplicable light that shone brighter than the sun could ever hope to shine. And it wasn’t just where I lived either. This strange green light was shining all over the world. We didn’t think anything of it at first. We thought it was just some weird phenomenon that happened once every one hundred thousand years or every million years. I mean, it had to be the case, right? Why else would the sky that’s usually blue be green and the clouds blend in with the new sky color? It was being broadcast all over television, that you couldn’t go to any channel without someone talking about it and questioning what it was and why it was happening and what it meant for the people of earth. Even places on the other side of the globe were talking about it where it was supposed to be nighttime and the sky was supposed to be black. This green light instantly became the number one trending topic on essentially all social media platforms. Scientists were trying to explain what was causing it and if it was somehow harmful to us, but nearly all of them were talking out of their ass. Historians were clamoring, trying to find anything that was remotely similar to this occurrence, but nothing was coming up. No one had an answer or anything close to one and this was causing everyone to start to panic. Within the span of a few hours of the light first appearing, there were already reports of riots taking place in major cities all around the world. Many of the reports said that it was because the people assumed that the governments of the major countries were the cause behind this. If I wasn’t already baffled about the idea of seeing the sky turn green, I would be wondering how people manage to start these riots so quickly and how so many people think that it’s a good idea to take part.

America was the first place to be overrun by the rioting citizens. Even with the armed forces being called in to quell the riots, it wasn’t enough and the citizens simply outnumbered the soldiers by at least twenty to one. Places like the White House were almost immediately swarmed with rioters doing their best to gain entry. It’s never been depicted in movies, but from what I saw on the live footage of the White House riot, breaking down the door or smashing through the windows weren’t easy. It took some time, but they eventually made their way inside, but after that, I can’t really tell what happened. And the same thing was happening to other government buildings around the world. What came next was something that no one was expecting at all. Out of nowhere, explosions were happening all around at seemingly random locations. It was causing even more panic to take place and I thought that it was just some underground terrorist group that was simply waiting for an opportunity like mass rioting to make their move. A lot of people, including myself, thought that this was the end of the world. With that mindset, a lot of people were desperately trying to find their god. The explosions were continuing and showed no signs of letting up. We first thought that it had something to do with bombers, but it was looking like the cause was something else. Many people were chalking it up to the green light and at the time, I wouldn’t argue against it. There was just simply no way that any one group of individuals would be able to get their hands on that much explosives and to be able to set it up in seemingly random locations, all without getting caught by the authorities. To say that many people lost their lives because of this would be an understatement. I couldn’t see an exact number, but if this was happening all around the world, then I had no doubt that the population of the world was decreasing at an alarming rate. Many, such as myself, fled to our homes and did everything we could to make sure that the door wouldn’t open for anyone or anything. As I tried to make my way back to what I thought would be the safest place I know, people around me were vanishing before my eyes. As if there wasn’t enough chaos already happening around me, this was added to the mind shattering situation. I would’ve loved to see scientists try to talk their way out of this one, but my mind was simply focused on not wanting to be one of the unlucky people that suddenly gets removed from this place. I didn’t know if they were dying or if they were being taken to some other location, but people were disintegrating into dust. Some people were vaporized entirely, clothes included, while others were vaporized in a way that their clothes were not harmed, leaving everything to look like the stereotypical idea of a dystopian future. I had run faster than I ever had before in my entire life and to be honest, I was thoroughly surprised that my legs were able to move at such a speed. I guess that’s what happens when your body is in severe fight or flight mode. By the time I got home, that’s when the pain was starting to set in as well as all of the emotions that came with witnessing everything that was happening and the day wasn’t even over yet. The emotional and physical fatigue I was feeling was almost too much for me to bear and I truly thought that I was going to die because of it. I don’t think anyone would be able to handle this much stress on their body, no matter how much they trained themselves to bear it or how prepared they were.

With each passing second, I was certain it would be my last, but I was still here somehow and I could hear the craziness in the streets. I had hoped that everyone would somehow be able to make it through all of this, but deep down, I knew that that wasn’t going to be the case. That green light in the sky still shone just as bright as it did earlier that morning even though it was closer to the evening time. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky and the explosions were still just as loud as ever, even with me being inside my house with my ears covered. The earth also started to feel like it was going to give way at any point and I had no idea what I needed to do. I had lived alone and the thought of calling my friends and family didn’t occur to me until a few hours after I had gotten home. Even after I had thought about doing so, I decided against it. I was sure that they were trying to deal with all of this on their own and they didn’t need me calling them up and keeping them from doing whatever they needed to do. This had continued well into the night and I wasn’t able to get any sort of sleep and I think that everyone else around the world was feeling the exact same way. By the time morning came, things seemed to calm down somewhat, though I guess that was because there were less people alive than there were yesterday. Even though I say morning, it was really hard to tell that time had passed because it still looked like it was in the middle of the day. The only way I was able to tell that it was morning was because I had my phone with me and thankfully it was still working well enough to provide the date and time. If there was any solace I could take from all of this insanity, it was the fact that my phone was still functioning. Consider it the mindset of a first world millennial…

By this point, years had passed and the entire population of the world had dwindled down to a startling one percent. I say one percent because I wanted to try and be as optimistic as I can be, given the times I live in, but in reality, it’s more like a half of one percent or maybe even a quarter of a percent. I felt like I could travel over a hundred miles before I ever saw anyone else, but even then, coming into contact with someone else was extremely rare. Most of the people I know didn’t make it as I’ve tried to contact them via several different means with no response. I don’t know how I managed to survive for this long, but I have a feeling that whatever sort of luck that’s keeping me here on earth is going to run out eventually. It’s hard to tell when it’s safe to go outside. It doesn’t help that I haven’t seen the night sky in ages by now and I think my vision has suffered because of it. The explosions have also been a constant and I’ve managed to block out the sound whenever I need to in order to get some rest, but it wasn’t easy. I may not be religious, but I know that someone was looking out for me, because I haven’t been suddenly vaporized and my house hasn’t been subject to the explosions happening all over the place.

Resources has been dwindling at a much slower rate than the populations decreasing. Food and water were always readily available for anyone who was brave enough to venture out in public and risk the possibility of being caught in an explosion or being disintegrated without any warning. It was a gamble that many of us had to face and some people had made it nearly every single time, but all it took was just one time and their lives were over. Every time I had to go out, I made sure that I had enough food and water to last me for several months. Each time I had to go out, I was certain that I wasn’t going to make it back and I mentally prepared myself to meet my end, but it got harder each time I needed to go out. It would always be a minute longer of staying indoors than the last time, or it would be my hand shaking worse than usual. I’ll gladly admit that I was afraid of dying like this, dying in a world that seemed like it was going to last way longer than this. I don’t doubt that in the next three to five years, the entire planet will be desolate. It’s horrifying to think about, but when you’ve been living in this crazy messed up world for as long as I have, your mental sanity begins to falter bit by bit until thinking like this is as normal as breathing.

I’m running dangerously low on food and water again, which means I’ll have to make a trip somewhere and try to find something. But with companies no longer existing, there aren’t any new products being brought to stores and that means I would have to travel much farther to find something. The longer I’m out in public, the higher chance there is that I won’t make it back. I don’t like it, but I think I would rather die while trying to make it back and be prepared for that inevitability, than to be at home and have it happen when I’m not expecting it. Well… I guess there’s no point in trying to delay it any longer. Even though there are things I still wanted to do in life, I can say that I don’t have too many regrets. So I guess that’s something. Here I go…