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Old 11-16-2005, 12:16 AM   #1
MalReynolds
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Default The End

Human existence is just a pot waiting to boil over onto the slick surface of the stove. There is an uneasy medium that always seems to be met when you meet eyes with someone on the other side of the street, or even walking towards you on the same sidewalk. A look into the eyes of another person will tell you everything you need to know about their intentions in the few seconds it will take to pass them. A mutual understanding is met without words, only an exchanged glance, and life goes on for both parties.

There is always that tension, however, that cannot be helped. You look into their eyes and for the first split second you have to determine just what they’re going to do, if they’re going to attack you, stop you, shake your hand or just walk past. In most cases, it’s the last one. No one really has enough time or energy to expend upon constantly fighting; instead, they must focus on their own world.

In every person ever created lies the desire to do something out of the ordinary. Hold up a liquor store just for the rush, solicit a prostitute for a quickie, swallow copious amounts of pills, go for a joyride… The possibilities that humans face are endless, and only self control and the fear of retribution stops them from ever doing anything too harsh, or what one might consider dangerous.

I have these urges myself; I don’t quite fit into a given situation, constantly adapting. My deepest desire had always been to just walk down the street, burst into my neighbor’s house and sleep with my neighbor’s wife, going directly against some of the commandments that were instilled upon me as a youth. This simple act of rebellion was enough; I had no latent aggressive desires, no urge to kill, maim or rape… Simply covet my neighbors wife, covet my neighbors goods… Covet my neighbor’s wife’s goods.

These latent actions lie dormant within anyone until a proper catalyst comes along to set off the unfortunate chain of events that would lead to the culmination of the darkest action. It could be something as simple as getting fired from your job, or your wife telling you that she’s leaving. These simple little details in life could set something off in your brain, telling you that whatever it is, it’s okay to do it because you have nothing left to worry about anymore. You can sleep with your secretary; your wife isn’t going to care anymore. You can rob the office safe and run away, never to be seen again. Something small, related to your darkest action… And that’s all it takes.

Don’t be confused by my use of the words “darkest action” either. It’s just the simple phrase I use because “latent desire only accessible by an appropriate catalyst” is too much to say sometimes. My “darkest action” is the neighbor’s wife deal. It’s not particularly dark; it’s just me branching out against what I was taught. A minor stab at the system that tried to raise me in its image.

That being said, everyone has a catalyst. So does the human race. If there was something powerful enough to make everyone abandon the principles they hold dear, everyone would run around committing their darkest action. Something so powerful to make people no longer fear the police force, religion or what have you, but instead finally have what it takes to do what they’ve always secretly wanted.

It happened a month ago. They came over the airwaves, sending messages of sorrow and regret to everyone who inhabited this planet. A fully translated message to anyone who had access to a TV or radio, telling us that it was only a matter of a few weeks before it would all be over. Life on the face of this green Earth would cease to exist… Bacteria, which had survived longer than anything else on this sphere would be wiped out, burned in the culmination of the now inevitable destruction of our planet.

People took the news surprisingly well, the world continued to spin and people continued to live their life like they had every day. Working the power plants, checking people out at the super market. It hadn’t really set in with anyone yet what exactly that one broadcast had meant… Or maybe it had, denial was just the best course of action to cope with the loss of life that was a small span of time away.

I quit my job the day I had found out… Not because I was doing something ballsy to stick it to my boss, but because I had been planning on doing this for a few weeks anyway. I had this whole long speech written about why my job sucked, why he sucked at running my sucky job and why a socially retarded chimp would be doing a better job. The world was going to end, and all I could do is be polite over the phone, afraid for whatever reason of upsetting the asshole on the other end of the line.

That’s really odd, now that I think about it.

Life goes on, doesn’t it? Can’t always spend life looking back on what we should have done, or could have done, or how we messed up. Kissed her on the teeth one time and broke up with her. Was it a mistake? Yes. Do I regret it? Yes. But I managed to find a way to get over it. That was six years ago. I bring that up now to show you that if I had been dwelling on it for the past six years, I wouldn’t be nearly as far as I am today… Although that’s not really saying much, in light of the news.

Two weeks until the D-day, my roommate left taking my car. I told him I didn’t need it anymore, I was pouring over the classifieds looking for a new job. He told me that he didn’t want to stay around here anymore, that he was going to see the countryside and how he hadn’t really appreciated it in so long, or some such. I told him to take the car and not worry about it. I haven’t seen him since. Other people had surely gotten the idea. Perhaps he had become lost in a mob intent on saving themselves by worshipping the planet. I don’t know.

New reports came filing in later that day of riots breaking out in all the major cities. Reporters were going crazy, into the middle of all of these rioters trying to get them to settle down for an interview. So many people died that day, the number growing exponentially over the next week until there weren’t as many people to kill. The reporters for the most part ended up dead, their blood staining the famous streets all over the world. The faint crimson hue that had finally sunk into the ground beneath the Eiffel Tower, the waterways of Venice tainted slightly red… Times Square an utter mess. As long as the TV’s would run, the news stations would send out copters to survey the carnage. Flybys became the norm for those seeking intelligence from the TV, a quick look at the fires that were burning, the pain that had spilled out into the street.

Yet still I sat in my apartment, preparing my pre-made dinners in the microwave, sitting, eating them… Playing video games and thinking about how I could make enough money to pay the electric bill this month. I finished so many video games those days, not because it was so high on my list of things to do… Simply because I was bored and unemployed.

The riots died down. People began to realize what a golden opportunity they had been given. Instead of setting fire to buildings, people ran inside, setting up shops. Gun shops, sex shops… What have you. It was all trade. People had collectively came to the conclusion that money was worthless. If you had something bigger and better, you could trade it in for two smaller things. You run into a sex shop, if the girl likes you, she takes you back. It was simple; very rarely did any one person get rejected.

Some people tried to keep a semblance of humanity, returning to work day after day. Opening up their liquor store at 7:30 AM, raising the gate and hoping they would get just a little more business today than yesterday. I don’t think these people ever really gave up hope, either… I just think that maybe, eventually, they were all killed off by people who for once in their life wanted to experience what the big deal was with murder and why it was so appealing to so many people.

Robbing stores became a norm as well. I could lean out my window and watch people run down the street with a shopping cart full of guns and stolen merchandise, stacks of money, whatever they could get their hands on. It was strange, I would lean out the window to see what was going on to nearly get my head shot off. Didn’t matter what time of day I would stick my head out, a shot would always be fired as soon as it went out the window. Made me wonder if someone’s darkest action was to kill me off. Power to them if they could eventually do it.

The news stations went off the air, same as most of all other stations. The only ones that remained on the air were the cable access channels telling everyone to repent, a marathon evangalist screaming at the top of his lungs that everyone in the world was a sinner and they must accept Jesus Christ as their personal lord and savior for this one time low price of a simple repetance. As I watched the crazy men on the airwaves, I couldn’t help but feel that these people, in their last days on Earth were really converting people, giving them something to hold on to… Something to be afraid of.

Chaos is when you’re unafraid of anything.

Three days until the D-day, I decided that it was now or never with the neighbors wife. I stepped into the hallway, walking down the corridor to the end. The door was cracked open, the apartment dark. Not a sound, save for the creaking door as I swung it open. There was a man sitting upright in a chair facing the door, a gun held in his arm, braced against the crease in his elbow. It didn’t take but a second for me to realize that he was dead, the back of his head shot out. He had done it to himself. Sad. I’ll mourn later.

I tiptoed through the apartment, afraid to call out or startle the wife… If she was even alive, that is. She was, laying back on the sofa with a varied assortment of pills lain out next to her on the table. A glass of water sat as the only other object on that surface. Her eyes met mine as I stepped into the room. She didn’t say a word, pulled her robe up over her hips. I nodded, letting my pants fall to the ground.

Afterwards, I didn’t feel dirty. There was a twinge of regret as I left the apartment, knowing that as soon as I was out, as soon as the door was shut she would take those pills and stop worrying. That didn’t seem so bad.

The day before D-day, I began to cry. I didn’t know why. It just seemed so wasted and that everyone outside was living what was left of their time much more efficiently than I was. I thought about all that they were doing, the pillaging, the killing, the civil unrest, and I realized that in my own way, I had done all of those. I had pillaged the apartment, raped that poor woman, let her die, and was sitting alone in my apartment, the power fading, crying.

They didn’t give the exact hour or the exact second. They probably could have modified the answer they had if they had really wanted to continue working on the death date… But I don’t think they did. I figure, as soon as they got the number, they sent the word out and got the hell out of their offices, running around, playing tag or some shit.

D-day came. I walked out into the street, stepping into a puddle that was some water, but primarily blood. There was no gunshot for me this time. I wondered if the man intent on my death had given up. I walked down the road, looking in on windows, seeing peaceful and serene scenes of death in every storefront. People thrown over shards of glass, missing heads, missing fingers… Torture around ever turn, and oddly, it did nothing for me. I did not shy away, I did not act surprised. I had seen this broadcast every day, the camera flying down my street on occasion, documenting the anarchy that had taken over.

At the end of my block, a tank sat. No one moved from inside; it was quiet as death. I had to chuckle to myself… It seems as if the military had tried to enforce their laws even in light of the future. Trying to keep order in chaos… That was simply an impossible task. The few who wanted order were greatly outnumbered by those who wanted death and to live their wildest dreams… Their darkest action.

I walked out of the city limits to the top of a hill, sitting down on a rock next to a couple having sex. There was no love behind it, just as there was no love between me and that shell of a woman… There was just the experience, in that moment. I watched the sun disappear behind the hill, watched the lights in the city finally blink out, the power stations either being completely destroyed or completely abandoned. I sat at the top of the hill, watching the stars and for the first time, feeling insecure about my future.

I was also afraid. Afraid of what it might feel like to be ripped from this Earth so violently. As the hour grew on, I began to embrace the inevitable. It was an odd time to think about religion, but I did… It didn’t do much. In my mind, it just raised more questions as to what exactly I was going to do or what exactly was going to become of me.

As the sun began to peak its head over the hill, I grew impatient. I was finally able to accept what was going to happen, and it didn’t. I was most of all surprised. The couple having sex next to me had left in the middle of the night, heading back into the city but leaving their clothes behind.

The smoke rose in the distance, reaching up from the city and into the orange light of the rising sun. Humanity had destroyed itself. The scientists had left that day, but I have a feeling that if they had stayed, they might have realized they didn’t carry the one, or something else minor that would have made such a huge change.

But they didn’t. They had left and they had given us a date that was wrong. I don’t know when the date will be or if the burning cask of a city that I see lying before me is the D-day they had spoken of.

The days pass and the city smolders… And the idea solidifies in my mind.

We were the D-day.

The news was the catalyst, but as sure as anything… We had destroyed ourselves.

-

Mal
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Old 11-16-2005, 01:40 AM   #2
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Default RE: The End

Rad twist. Twilight Zone-worthy, even. Not that it would ever get aired, but Twilight Zone-worthy.
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Old 11-16-2005, 09:37 AM   #3
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Oh crap, so the scientist's "darkest action" was to set a date for when the world was to end and send it out knowing that the human race would destroy itself? Well, with the couple being there we can still reproduce and stop this from happening again. Hopefully.
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Old 11-16-2005, 08:05 PM   #4
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Nice, mean scientists.
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Old 11-17-2005, 01:23 PM   #5
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Damn good story! Quite interesting plot twist you got there. Was the neighbor's wife any good?
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Old 11-17-2005, 01:35 PM   #6
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I enjoyed that. It does seem very much like an episode of The Twilight Zone. You're about 50 years too late for that, however.
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Old 11-17-2005, 04:21 PM   #7
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Is it supposed to be personally you Mal? or just a random character?
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Old 11-17-2005, 06:23 PM   #8
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Just a random character. Believe me, if I found out the world was going to end, I'd flip out and kill stuff. Ninja style.

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Old 11-17-2005, 06:43 PM   #9
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Everybody would flip out ninja style, god accepts that as being awesome and he would beam you to heaven pronto.
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Old 11-17-2005, 10:08 PM   #10
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Hahaha, I can see it now: Everyone decides to flip out ninja style, and world turns into a giant server of GunZ/The Specialists.
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