The Fall of Our Kingdom

8 minutes 20 seconds 

Life is an abstract concept.  The world isn’t our forever kingdom. A final breath taken, a final word, a final press of a button could be the end of it all. No more second chances. Just the end. 

As the day passed me by so did the clouds, the sun shined brightly one moment, and the next the curtains closed. 

The sky was dark. The city became illuminated by little squares of light, soon those would go out too. I write this in the final moments of planet Earth. The word was spoken and now we are descending into the last era.

7 minutes 20 seconds

I was in the library when the lights flickered once, twice, and then the words of the book faded into the new-never ending darkness around me. The color drained from the world, former bright, vivid signs becoming lifeless, shells of their past selves.

Static erupted into the air, the rules of the silent library forgotten. Words were lost as the connection to the towers failed. 

6 minutes 20 seconds

Once the static was all-consuming, panic finally set in. Hearts began racing, and a subconscious thought became shared by all. It was the end.

We may not have known why, but we knew that the lives we had, were going to be forever changed. 

Outside the library, the world was lit by small, shaky flares of light. The static was no more, screams and pounding feet devoured the air. 

5 minutes 20 seconds

It’s July 24th and the temperature has dropped to 30. Oregon gets cold, but this cold. This cold was the cold where the shivers down your spine have nothing to with the temperature. 

People around me ran for their cars, hoping the summer tainted air trapped inside would warm their bones. It worked, until like the atmosphere around them, the heat was stolen. 

4 minutes 20 seconds

The movies never get it quite right. The books fail to grasp the full picture as well. It’s like when they ask you in school, how would you react if one of your loved ones was being held at gunpoint? Would you break your morals to save them? You can never truly know until you are in the moment. That’s when it becomes clear. 

That dread that’s been building in your heart, that you subconsciously know, but refuse to admit. Suddenly the dread comes racing from the pit of your stomach, causing heavy nausea to settle within you. I realize now what is happening. It’s clear now that this is the end. 

3 minutes 20 seconds

Arms wrapped tightly around myself, looking for any source of warmth. I couldn’t think straight enough to guess how cold it was, I could barely move my legs forward as my joints froze. I had to keep going. 

Falling forward with no warning, I found I couldn’t feel my legs, but along with the overwhelming fear came relief, I wasn’t cold anymore. 

2 minutes 20 seconds

It’s hard to grasp as a child that life has an end, even in your teen years you have a sense of immortality. Nothing can touch me. For a while, it’s true, until your best friend is gone. Then you realize, I am mortal. 

As I lay there upon the stones of the ground, not alone, I finally realized it. I wasn’t gonna live forever. 

1 minute 20 seconds

I don’t know how I knew, but I knew there were mere moments left. Screams had long finished their echoes, it was silent as the truth won and defeat stained the air. 

Air. Breaths were coming slower, shallower. Everything that once was easy, normal, subconscious, was now laborious. 

20 seconds

You never realize how precious every second is until you are down to your last. The stars were the clearest I had ever seen them. Sparkling bright, but the moon was a shadow. Keeping my eyes open was all that I wanted, I wanted to have the stars printed upon my soul. Nevertheless, they failed me and soon it all went dark. And that was the Fall of Our Kingdom. Our world was never ours forever to take for granted.