I recently decided that I wanted to start writing again. I'm not sure if this is related to a genuine desire to create something or just a reaction to my impending graduation with all its uncertainty, but here we go. Oh, and as a quick side note, the blog title is an Animaniacs quote.
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March 19th was not a good day. To put it bluntly, it was the day our world ended.
To me, it started out like any other day, waking up way too early to go to a class I probably slept through. The specifics of the class or what school I went to or even my name seem rather moot at this point, so I think I shall skip the pleasantries. As I left class that morning, I noticed that it was dark, despite the fact that it had been a sunny spring day when I first entered the dreary building I was exiting. Looking up, I was amazed to see the sun being blotted out by a massive bronze-colored sphere with a tripod set of legs that was descending from the sky. After gaping up at it, I returned my gaze to earth and looked around at the people beside me. Some looked up in wonder, some in fear, and others in hope, and while I was not sure how I felt about it all myself, I knew things would never be the same.
The ship landed, and the news reported that approximately a thousand spheres had landed all over the earth. Initially the spheres seemed to lack any form of entrance, and after landing they did not seem to attempt any kind of communication. However, after about an hour they started to transmit a message across all radio frequencies, first in English, and then in a cycle of different languages.
“Your planet is dying. These ships have been sent to rescue as many of you as they can, and they will open their doors shortly. Please enter them in a calm and reasonable manner within the next 24 hours. We wish we could send more ships, but we only recently discovered your plight and this was all we could do. We are truly sorry.”
Massive confusion ensued after that. Everyone wanted to believe that it was a hoax, but the ships were rather convincing. The governments of the world tried to tell people not to panic, that the best scientists saw no evidence of these claims, and some even went as far as placing barricades at the entrances to the ships once they opened up. Others, however, left the choice up to the people, and those that tried to prevent entry were eventually pushed aside. Some discussion developed on how they spoke our languages and used our communications, but there just was not enough time for people to focus too much on such things. So, lines began to form at the spheres as people decided there was nothing else to do. We soon found out that the ships were large enough to accommodate about a million people, which meant only a billion people would survive. This initially brought about fear of riots, but eventually it became clear that many were either too distrustful, too afraid, or too set in their ways to get onto the ships, causing very few of them to fill completely.
I was one of the one’s that got onto the ships right away. Bereft of family and young and ready for adventure, I could not help but be drawn to the alien craft. Once inside, I followed a series of lights and a flat female voice that gave instructions. This led me to my “room,” which was little more than a prison cell with a bed, toilet, and a type of view screen that seemed to show feeds from the news agencies covering the evacuations. Unlike a prison cell the door did not lock immediately behind me, and I took a small measure of comfort from that. The voice also said that the quarters were only temporary until we got to the closest refugee camp, and they were small so as many people as possible could be accommodated. All of this made sense to me.
With little else to do, I sat on the bed and watched the video screen and the people entering the ship. There was also a timer, which I assumed meant the time until the launch of the ship. It all seemed crazy and overwhelming at that point, sitting in my little cell with a countdown to the earth’s destruction, but there was nothing else I could do, so I tried to focus on a possible bright future involving new planets and exotic aliens.
After awhile, the line going into the ship dwindled and stopped, at which point the view screen changed to that of the earth, apparently viewed from some unknown vantage point. The ship started to vibrate, and the door to my room slammed shut. A moment of panic was brought to a close when the voice intoned that this was just a safety measure for departure.
A few minutes later, the vibrations stopped. I continued to stare at the earth, and to my dread I noticed that the oceans were changing colors. First they darkened to black, and then lightened to a dark red color, like lava. The continents flared orange, and soon after, the planet simply exploded, sending huge chunks of rock out into space and taking the moon out in the process. Shocked, I could do nothing but stare in horror at the scene.
Then, before I could fully comprehend what had happened, the screen went black. The light in my cell went out, and in the darkness I heard the voice once again.
“We have destroyed your planet. You are now our slaves. Do as we say and you will not be harmed.”
Like I said, March 19th was not a good day.
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