A Light Chuckle from the Grim Reaper

It’s the end! They are here! They are coming! Everyone stay tuned for more news from your TV set, your radio, listen for city sirens, anything! They have been spotted right above our atmosphere, the newscaster reported frantically and the television kept blaring in the living room. Juan had his eyes glued to the screen.

He kept changing the channels, and all the networks were covering the same horrifying news that was building up in the last couple of days. The world was in a panic as every soul that existed in this wilted rock began to feel the Grim Reaper breathing down their necks.

“Juan, can you go to the store and get me a pack of cigarettes?” yelled Juan’s father from the bedroom. His father was a huge drunk who neglected his 12-year-old son day to day.

“Papa, the news says to stay indoors,” replied Juan with hardly any enthusiasm behind his response.

His father walked out the bedroom door. He was wearing a wife-beater stained with who knows what and dirty, ripped jeans with two different types of socks on each foot—he had a 40 ounce of malt liquor, Mickey’s, in his hand. Juan looked back and stared at his struggling father, but Juan failed to think that many times.

“C’mon, mijo” insisted Juan’s father with a fake gesture in using the typical Hispanic term of endearment, mijo or my son.

Juan got up from the beat-up couch that was barely surviving from the terrible scratches that their black cat, Negrito, had inflicted on. Juan kept looking at the TV set as he was making towards his father who was standing in the hallway.

Just last week our stratospheric jet fighters were shot down in an attempt to communicate with the…

“Turn that down, mijo!” interrupted Juan’s father.

Juan hit the mute button on the controller and threw it down on the cat-scratched, rotten couch. He turned to face his drunken father. Juan’s father gave him some cash and demanded that the cigarettes be menthol. Juan took the cash with a sudden move of his right hand and walked away fast. Juan wanted to listen to the epidemic news that was possibly preaching the end of the world, but, instead, he had to make this urgent errand for his lazy, demanding father.

It was an invasion and every living thing in the world felt the Grim Reaper beginning to smile and ready to have a ball.

Juan went for the remote to hit the mute button to get a little more information from what he never ever paid attention to in his life—the news.

“Hurry up, mijo!” Juan’s father persisted from the bedroom that had a thousand stenches.

“OK, ya me voy!” retorted Juan. He turned off the TV set, grabbed his black-hooded sweatshirt, and headed outside.

Juan opened the screen door and stepped outside. He saw a bunch of helicopters flying around the city. Sirens could be heard everywhere. Smoke stacks could also been seen here and there reaching out to the skies. It was a sign that most people had given up. It was the beginning of the end!

People running around in panic around the city, and the world knew that the Grim Reaper was already at work.

Juan looked back at his house, and he saw Negrito looking out the front window sitting on the sill. Negrito’s eyes were reflecting light from the one sunray that sneaked through the smoky, black sky. Juan kept thinking that Negrito wasn’t staring at him trying to say goodbye. Juan thought that Negrito was staring because the cat was still trying to understand human behavior.

Juan headed down the block. Most people in the neighborhood were packing their belongings into their cars. It was a panic wave that was rolling over all the neighborhoods. When he reached the corner, there was an accident that had just occurred. The passenger, the lady who lived next door, Señora Margarita, was bleeding and sat lifeless with the car door wide open. Her husband was kneeling next to her as blood from her gashed head dripped down her right shoulder and onto her lifeless hand that was being held by her husband. His tears ran down his face as he prayed to God.

Juan just walked by the scene. He had a weird emotion running through him that didn’t make sense. He hated her when she was alive because she always told on him every time he was up to no good. Juan had never seen much of the husband, until then.

As Juan kept walking, he noticed and heard the chaos all around him. As he got closer to the avenue, he started seeing how bad traffic was and saw people yelling at each other. An occasional gunshot was heard here and there, but no one paid attention to that. There were other things at stake at that moment. The end was here!

He made a right once he got to the avenue and walked down past a few stores on his side of the street. He saw a man, a hobo, grab a woman by the hair and pulled her out of the car like she was some old luggage. She was screaming at the top of her lungs, but no one was coming to the rescue. The man got into the car as two kids jumped out of the car from the back seat on the opposite side. The man proceeded to drive the car into the sidewalk to avoid the gridlock traffic. The woman’s legs got caught underneath the back wheel as the man turned a hard left to get on the sidewalk. She screamed, and Juan could almost hear her femur bones breaking, crack!

Juan stood there as the man in the newly-stolen car kept driving down the sidewalk, away from him. People were jumping out of the way as the car rocketed down the improvised road. Another hobo with a shopping cart was hit hard by this shooting, giant missile and flew over the hood and violently thrown into a parking meter pole where his head was bashed open.

“Help me!” screamed the black woman with her broken legs. Her arms were wide open and aiming at the sky. Her children crying hysterically next to her, as the youngest was clenched to her neck. Juan stared for a bit.

The smell of the Grim Reaper was all over the place.

Suddenly, a gunshot went off near him. It came from the liquor store where he was headed. He saw a man run out with a revolver in his hand. The man was wearing a suit—a man with glasses and wealthy looking. He had a bunch of dirty magazines under one arm as he ran for freedom in a dying world.

Juan headed for the liquor store, walked into it, and saw that it was looted. There were other people still inside looting. The kid saw the usual couple that ran the store behind the counter standing in front of each other. They were staring at each other. The man was caressing his wife’s head from the top and down her sides. She stood there hypnotized by his eyes full of tears as her own tears ran down her cheeks. She was pregnant.

Juan stared at them. It was the most beautiful thing he’s seen in a long while. Like a strong empathy, he stood there feeling their sadness. Juan was oblivious to the people looting all around him. He was oblivious to the man who was freshly shot in the head by the magazine rack.

Juan decided to go behind the counter and look for his father’s favorite brand. Most of the cigarettes were mostly gone from looting. The couple stood next to Juan, who was kneeling looking at the cigarette rack on the floor, as they kept their love buzz stare.

“Pall Mall’s will do,” Juan whispered as he got up and grabbed one of the last packs lying on the floor. It was probably dropped by some cigarette thief and didn’t notice it had slipped his grip as the end of the world breathed down his or her neck.

Juan looked at the couple, the store owners, as he walked away. They were kissing and caressing each other in their immaculate dazed. Then as he was staring, Juan tripped over the TV set that’s always on whenever he came into the store, usually running the same errand for his father, buying cigarettes.

The store owners only let one underage kid buy cigarettes and it was Juan. Juan’s father and the store owners had a heated argument in the past, so, with some sort of peaceful, mutual agreement, Juan’s father was allowed to send Juan to buy cigarettes. No matter what, Juan never took advantage of this situation. Somehow, if Juan did want to buy cigarettes for himself, it would get around to his father, and Juan never liked his father’s sloppy belt slashing across his back.

The TV was on but the volume was down. It had fallen from its platform that sat up behind the counter. The screen was cracked but it was miraculously working. Juan knelt down and turned up the volume. The picture was distorted, but it had clear sound.

Everyone must stay inside! All armed forces from all over the world are going to launch a huge aerial attack! Anti-aircraft weapons, missiles, drones, tanks, or any gun that can fire will be discharged in a matter of minutes. Many of these vicious visitors, who have destroyed many cities around the world, are flying in our own very atmosphere camouflaged…

Juan turned around to speak to the store owners, Claudia and Marco, but they had gone already. Juan didn’t hear them. There was a hobo gathering what he could and told Juan to run for cover, because the whole sky was coming down. Juan turned again to listen to the TV.

A warning to the public, please stay indoors and find cover. This is our last stand. May God bless the…

The TV went out. Some of the lights were going out in the liquor store. Juan stood up and looked at the counter one more time. Inside his head, he wished Claudia and Marco would have a safe trip to wherever everyone else was racing for in the last days in this putrid world.

Walking down the street towards his house, Juan could see that most flying vehicles were clearing the sky. The noise pollution was just coming from cars honking, people howling in pain, dogs barking, cars crashing, people cursing, people dying, and all that wicked jazz.

The kid kept thinking how the Grim Reaper was flying above and sweeping up souls in masses.

Juan took a zip of his Mountain Dew Red, a flavor he’s been dying to try in the last month or so. Then, a recognizable voice had called to him from behind. Juan turned in slight fear but not showing any sign of it.

“What’s Up Perro?” said Ramon.

Juan just stared at Ramon who was very near and too close for Juan to make any sudden moves for an escape. Juan despised Ramon, who was three years older and always took Juan’s belongings. Ramon was Juan’s sensei in a wicked, tormented way. Ramon taught everything to Juan, unwillingly, about defending deadly blows to the gut or even a lean slap to the face.

Ramon walked up with his wicked smile like the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland. He had a hair net with a wimpy mustache growing. He didn’t have enough thickness to start growing a goatee. His brown flannel shirt was buttoned at the top. He was holding a gun.

Juan stared at the gun as Ramon began his usual blabbing. That’s all it was to Juan. He just heard “blah, blah, blah” from Ramon. Juan hated this poorly raised individual who took his belongings about once or twice a week.

“You walked into a looted store and all you took was some cigarettes and a soda?” laughed Ramon.

“Yeah, well it was all gone or I didn’t really…”

“Shut up!”

Juan kept his eye on Ramon’s right hand that held onto a .25 cal.

“You like it?” Ramon said, referring to the gun. Juan just shrugged his shoulders, and Ramon’s smile went from Cheshire cat to the Grinch.

Ramon’s nickname in the street was Smiley. That kid loved to smile, especially when he committed armed robbery, shot blindly at rival gang members, or just got his ass kicked. Ramon was made to be a menace and driven by pure malice. As a matter of fact, Ramon was hated in the neighborhood, period. Ramon was lucky that his annoying smile never got him in trouble at its worst.

“I think I’ll take those cigarettes,” Ramon continued.

“Why don’t you just go in the store and…,” Juan had stopped suddenly as Ramon raised the gun at him. The smile kept embellishing Ramon’s innate evil.

“Give me the cigs, dawg!”

Juan gave Ramon the cigarettes with no hesitation. Ramon kept on smiling and put them in his pocket. He put the gun down.

“Get out of here before I do something really stupid,” implied Ramon.

Juan stood there and saw Ramon walking away with his father’s cigarettes that he got for free in a deteriorating world. Juan stood there listening to the howls, screams, car horns, sirens, and the sadness of a dying world.

Juan wanted the Reaper to go to work on Ramon asap.

As Ramon jogged around the corner, a sudden, crisp thunder started clasping through the sky. Juan looked up after he flinched from being startled by the loud thunder. It turned out that the skies were lit up with rockets flying upwards. Flashes were bursting among the once murky sky that was covered with smoke from burning homes. It was a strobe light canopy.

It was loud! It was unbearable. It deafened Juan’s ears. It made Juan think of the end. Juan went down on his knees covering his ears.

The attack on the skies went on for a good minute before Juan was able to look up again. When he did look up, the skies lit up like the best 4th of July celebration he’s ever seen in his life. Only this time, it was full of terror. It was Hell flying across the world laughing down at the human race.

As the explosions sporadically blew across the sky as far as the eyes could see, Juan kept thinking that the Grim Reaper made his overtime rounds on Earth as people kept dying by the minute or second.

Massive amounts of unidentified metal, ships, or whatever they were started falling from the skies. Most of it was on fire. Juan observed these falling pieces that came down with a vicious speed leaving trails of smoke. More wrecking noises starting traveling in the air across the city, as these giant size chunks of metal hit the streets. Juan felt the ground shake underneath him. This time he was truly frightened. It was an explosion after another. The skies were burning and falling.

After what seemed to be a long time, the commotion stopped. Juan sat there in the middle of what used to be a street. Houses around him were destroyed and burning down. He saw a dog running around on fire. He also saw a woman carrying a dead baby with one arm. The woman’s other arm was gone. It was just gone.

In shock, Juan absorbed all of this at once. He knew the world he knew was gone. Now, his world was on fire and totally destroyed with people running around in total destructive madness.

The kid kept thinking how much fun the Grim Reaper was having making its rounds like it was on a shopping spree.

Juan got up and walked down the street. He wanted to go home and see what was left of it. He walked and thought about what he would do if his home was destroyed. What would he do?

He turned the corner and already knew that his house was obliterated, because his block was enveloped with fire, smoke and foreign metallic objects that had fallen from the sky.

He got to his house and saw that it reduced to rubbles. Fire consumed the inside of the wreckage. He stood there as the neighborhood bum, Don Pancho, walked by him and asked him for a cigarette. Juan always gave him one when he went to the store to buy cigarettes for his father. The bum eventually left because Juan did not respond.

Tears ran down his face. He knew his father was dead, but that was not his melancholy. It was the fact that he was not going to know how to get in touch with his mother. He had forgotten his cell phone in the house. The house was fiercely on fire.

Out of the corner, he saw a dark, four-legged creature come out from a smoky hole. It was Negrito, his cat. The cat looked like he was sweating. It shook its body like it was relieved to have gotten away from a burning entrapment. Negrito looked around as it meowed in despair.

Juan started to climb over the hot rubble to go near it. It was hot and burned Juan’s skin occasionally. The cat looked at him and backed away once Juan was near. Juan stopped his attempt to get the cat. He just looked down at Negrito. The cat turned and jumped over some of the rubble and darted off. Juan yelled out at Negrito, but the cat kept going. Juan was shocked that his loyal cat would turn from him. Once the cat got to the other side of the rubble, it looked back at Juan. They stared at each other. Juan had tears going down his face. The cat stared at him like it was trying to say something.

Negrito’s stare was telling Juan: “This is it, man! The end is here! Everyone is on their own path from now on!” The stare somehow shot through Juan’s mind and let him know what the cat had to say exactly. It was a stare that came with a mutual understanding. Juan knew that it was true—everyone on their own from now on! Negrito turned and disappeared through some smoke, and the cat was gone.

Juan had dirty tears streaming down his cheeks. He stood looking around at what used to be his home. His father was most likely under the rubble burning intensely, and, in a weird wicked way, Juan thought that it was righteous that his father was tragically burning. Juan thought that his father finally got the taste of Hell that was coming for him.

It also occurred to Juan that he was now walking through the Hell that he deserved—wandering for the rest of his life by his lonesome in a beautifully destroyed world. Juan thought about it very hard. He always dreamt of post-apocalyptic worlds and what it would take to survive in one.

He suddenly saw his slingshot between his feet. Juan picked it up and put it in his pocket.

“Back to the store,” he thought, “to get some food.” He also wanted to go to the surplus store down two blocks from his burnt house and to try to find a gun. For now, the slingshot will do.

When, Juan was walking down the street again. He smelled death all around him—burning, yelling, bleeding, and everything horrible possible.

Juan kept thinking about the Grim Reaper and how it was having a shopping extravaganza on that day. The same day that Juan lost his father, his cat, and the world around him.

As Juan walked down the street, he saw that rockets and anti-aircraft guns were being fired from afar. Explosions filled the evening sky in the distance. It was more than a world at war. It truly was the end!

Right before getting to the store where Juan had taken the cigarettes earlier, he saw a spaceship that had crashed at the entrance. It was a weird metallic object about the size of an old Ford Galaxy. It lay there with some smoke coming out of it and a horrible stench followed. It smelled like burning flesh or something odd. Juan was gagging from this smell. It left a raunchy flavor in his mouth. Juan was scared to touch it. It seemed like the object was electric. Some areas of this ship were undulating, like liquid metal of some sort.

Juan walked up closer and noticed Ramon trapped underneath the metallic ship. Ramon looked pale and almost lifeless. Blood was coming out of his mouth, as he looked like he was pinched between the ground and the object that had fallen from the sky. The damage on Ramon began right below the waistline. One of his legs was completely crushed and almost liquefied.

“Help me,” Ramon said struggling with his short breaths. Juan looked at him and noticed that his Cheshire smile was completely gone. The gun was there next to Ramon’s bleeding body but too far for Ramon to reach it, so Juan picked it up.

“Please help,” pleaded Ramon in excruciating pain.

The burning smoke from the space ship was getting rich and more unbearable.

Juan knelt down and took the cigarettes that had popped out of Ramon’s pocket and put them in his own pocket.

“Kill me!” uttered Ramon and stared at Juan.

Juan smiled and kept staring at Ramon. Ramon saw the biggest smile he’s ever seen on Juan’s face. Juan put the gun away.

“Wha…” Ramon surprised.

Juan got out his slingshot from his back pocket loaded the thing with a piece of metal that had broken off the spaceship—it was the perfect pebble size too. Ramon stared at this strange behavior as blood oozed out of his mouth. Juan cocked back the sling shot and aimed at Ramon’s forehead.

“Eat this!” said Juan as he let go of the shot.

Despite all the destructive mayhem around him, Juan could still hear Ramon in the distance yelling, “Kill me!” as he walked away.

Juan kept thinking on how the Grim Reaper was slightly chuckling at this situation.

By Bazooka Teaches