• Chapter 1
    Everything was perfectly. The sun peers down on me all the time while the moon rises after the sun at sundown. The birds fly above as cars drive by. The water flows as the wind brushes past. Everything was perfect. People thought of school as the one thing that brought peace to everyday lives. We would go in, study hard, and come out with new knowledge. Everything was perfect. The suburbs were great, always filled with happy people waving hello to you or saying, "How was your day?" The neighborhood was filled with so much life, social classes became unnoticeable within life. Everything was perfect.
    That’s what I used to say about things...

    The year was unknown; many people that used to live on Earth had perished. The world was coming to an end as pillars of fire erupted all around the earth, and the air filled with dust. In almost a chain reaction, the world had become a desolated wasteland where not a single drop of water stirred, and animals had ruled over mankind. The world wasn’t coming to an end, it already had ended…

    I walked outside into the blazing eclipsed sunlight as the vultures glazed overhead above me. The land was very dense and water was very scarce to us. The air was filed with dust that coated your lungs and eventually killed you when you were outside way to long. Ruins of buildings that used to exist could be seen everywhere you looked, and dried blood and skeletons or ashes could be found anywhere. I walked up to what used to be a corner store and walked inside to see if I could find any food. But after a long time of searching, my stomach twisted and turned and growled at me as I searched the empty shelves looking for something to feast on. I looked around the shop, finding blood scattered all over the floor, and I sat down and realized that I was alone…

    I woke up later when the sky had filled with ash, covering everything around it with a thick black coat. I shook all the dust and particles off my clothing and looked out in the distance and found a group of vultures gathering around and eating a dead animal, filling their guts with blood. I looked at them and my stomach growled yet again, this time louder than usual. I Thought to myself, I’m not ready to die here, I need some food. I looked around and to my surprise; I found a rifle roaming around in the storage case. I broke the glass and checked to see how much ammunition was in the thing, two bullets in the cartridge. I searched around the store some more ammo, and found none anywhere. I picked up the gun and pointed my eyes down the sight, gazing at the distance in between myself and my prey.

    The gun had felt smooth and it was very shiny compared to most things you ever found. I picked up the gun and pointed it at one of the vultures, I aimed for the head; I figured, one shot to the head should be enough to kill it. I held my finger on the trigger, blood getting warmer and warmer with every second I had sat there aiming this thing at the vulture. Damnit, I thought. Its either him, or me I have to do this, I must do this, I don’t want to die here and now! I pulled the trigger, the gun made a clicking sound; I pulled it again, same sound. I kept on pulling the trigger, hoping that the bullet would fire and kill the vulture already, but the thing kept on sitting going click, click, over and over again. I threw the gun down and scared the vultures away with the sound, stomach still yelling at me to get some food in it.
    I tried to say something out loud but couldn’t. That’s was one of the effects of living in a world full of ash and dust. You lost your voice after a while because the dust had filled up in your throat and had coated your insides like icing. You always sat there constantly coughing and coughing. Some people hated the feeling so much that they killed themselves to end the misery. I know this because I watched all my family and friends die because they breathed in to much dust. I had sat there and watched as they coughed up blood as black as the night sky, or at least what used to be the night sky. I sat there and watched my best friend, take a sharp piece of glass, and stab himself, over and over, until he had finally bled to death. I was the only one left in the entire city, I had nobody to look after me, and I also thought that nobody would ever find me.

    I sat there looking into the dust, thinking about all my friends that lived here. My best friends Lulu and Ryan, Bill and Kylie who had both had a thing for each other, Johnny and Payton who had both always fought with everybody. I missed them all; I sat here every night and cried out for them, hoping that they were having a better time wherever they went. I sat there hoping of the same thing for my future as well, but it wasn’t looking as big as it was supposed to be…

    The cries of the wind, blowing sand across this wasteland woke me up. The sand and dust flew up into the air and into my lungs, making me almost choke to death. I sat with my back to the wind hoping that it might go away to somewhere else, but it didn’t seem like it. I staggered to my feet, making no progress on getting out of the dust at all. But I managed to make it somewhere safer than the location I was previously located in. I climbed into a hole and climbed deep down into the darkness, a place that I don’t think anybody has thought to live in before.

    The place was pitch dark. The naked eye couldn’t see anything in front or behind or anywhere, the whole place was just filled with the horrors of the silent darkness. I stared around me in this very dark path, feeling my way around things, reaching for the unknown, listening to the noise all around me. My only two senses were failing on me and I couldn’t make out anything in this long corridor. I sat down on the ground and started to laugh, laugh until my throat felt like it was burning a hole in it, laughing so hard, I thought I was going insane. I felt an extreme amount of heat blast up into my face as I started to see red and orange. I looked at the ground beneath me; it was like the ground was spewing out fire. I sat there and watched, watched as the fire erupted from beneath me.

    I started to run, ran as far as my feet carried me, ran not knowing what was even in front of me. I came crashing into a blockade, one that made me flip off my feet into the pile of whatever was there, head contacting into the ground. I almost passed out from the fall, but I caught myself up again and ran, ran for another extended amount of time. The heat was coming from all directions around me; the fire made my pores open and made my feet slick on the ground. I came into contact with another wall, looking all around me hoping that someone would find me. But nobody was here, I was on my own.

    I felt around, the heat crawling up and down me, making my lungs burn with the fire. I looked around from what little light I got from the fiery pit and I found a ledge that crawled back up to the ground, making my escape possible. I looked around for anything to get on to grab the ledge, but there wasn’t anything. I paced myself further and further against the wall, inching my way too the ledge as the fire started to flood all over the ground. I breathed, in and out in and out until I felt as if I would suffer a heat stroke or die from exhaustion. I jumped as the fire flung itself at me, grabbing onto the ledge with both hands and pulling my body up as fast as I could.

    When I got outside again, it had turned dark. The Ash had filled this town with darkness causing your eyes to almost bleed from lack of light. I ran. Ran very far from the underground passage, panting with each step I took. When I had turned around, fire had started to come out of the ground and it turned and made its way all over the ruined city, destroying everything in its path. I ran as fast as I could, and I eventually reached the outskirts of town. I had turned back and looked upon the destruction of my home.

    The day the earth had erupted and literally tried to attempt to destroy all life on it, was the day when life began to come to an end. Aside from the molten lava and earthquakes that shook the earth, bombs and man made weapons were going off everywhere. A war had started about, 3 years ago that caused a nuclear holocaust that had caused man to the very edge of destruction. The final day, at the last moment the last bomb went off, earth had finally decided that it was enough and it was time to die…

    I sat on the ground, holding my stomach as it growled and yelled at me very loudly, making the vultures lick their lips and fly towards me from the loud noises. I sat there holding my stomach and holding a large remnant of a building in front of me, and I swung at the vulture charging at me, hoping to come into contact with it. I actually had come into contact with the bird, knocking it out on the ground, head bleeding all over the place. I took out my pocket knife, which was now very useful in these conditions I lived in, and I slit the bird’s throat. The blood spilt out all over my hands as I breathed in and let go of the bird.

    I sat there, sand and dust blowing all around me, pelting me with large and small chunks of debris. The fire I had tried to start had failed to flare. So I sat there with some of the meat from the bird cut up and I chewed on it, feeling the blood crawl down my chin. I had killed an animal for food, I felt like a savage eating this poor creature with its blood soaked into my pants and shirt. I sat there with food in my belly though; at least I would live a little longer now. I didn’t know exactly how long I would survive, but I knew that I would be good for the rest of the day…

    I got up and walked off towards the sunset, nightfall was coming and I had to find somewhere safe to go or else I would suffocate to death. I stumbled for about half an hour, (I thought) and I fell to my knees holding my arm, which had been sliced open from a piece of debris. My blood had dried up and mixed with the sand and it grew red and pulsed with my heartbeat. If I was to stop infection, I had to find fresh food and water soon, or else I was going to die from more than lack of oxygen. I paced myself further, feet screaming and bleeding from how far I had walked without rest. I finally found a point where I couldn’t move any further at all, and I fell to me knees and sucked in the dust. I smiled at the thought of maybe dying and getting back together with all my friends and family wherever I went after this. Then after a while, I had died…