Everything just happened at once. Boom flash. There was no in-between or introductions necessary. The planet lay splayed before us like a melon on a crisp summer day, red wet and glinting moist refractions of the sun. None of us could have expected this, but when does anyone ever expect the beginning to look like the end.
At first it came from the sky. A bright flash and a boom that rattled deep into the earth like a Himalayan tremor. No typical orange rash flash dashing the sky to bits...this was more aquamarine and aquiline, tracing the ridges of mountains against the sky, dark silhouette profiles sketched on cloud and mist. The blue grey fallout came fast and the scramble ensued. Rats on a ship going down.
Once the tremors subsided, the rains began. The clouds gathered and began pouring god’s tepid fury down on us. Wincing and whinging and howling followed for weeks and weeks. The howling never stopped. Wind worn and terrified we hovelled in caves, ditches, cellars, and culverts. The cracking and ripping peals ricocheted off of every mountain and rolled across every plain like thunder.
We were the chosen few who somehow survived, chosen by lottery at the last minute, shoved into craft not quite complete but space-worthy, and launched into orbit to watch the planet rend itself end from end, torn asunder by our own stupidity and sloth.
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