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Short stories: End of the world

by Adam Birmingham

Created on: August 29, 2009   Last Updated: September 02, 2009

Two sides of the Apocalypse

Andrew was sitting on his front porch when the black car pulled up to the front of the curb.

Andrew instantly dismissed it as a neighbor or some visitor, he continued to take in the morning sunlight. It wasn't a bad summer day, Andrew thought to himself, it was hot, but it wasn't unbearable, it could turn out to be an alright day.

The rather loud bang of a car door distracted him from his thoughts and caused him to look up. In front him stood a well built, tall, middle age man in a black suit, this sight brought only one thought to Andrew's mind.

"How cliche."

"Get in the car, now." The agent said in a collected voice.

Great, Andrew thought to himself, something is happening out there, but what does it have to with me?

"Excuse me?" Andrew said, hoping flesh out the situation.

"Listen, kid, you have no idea the opportunity that is in front of you right now! And if I were you, I would get in that car, NOW!" The sudden burst of anger startled Andrew, and against his better judgement he began to walk towards the small black car.

As he was getting in he started to think of the small things, like, what his parents would think if they found out what was happening. Things like this plagued his mind to the very moment he shut the car door, and as he did that, he felt a small burning on the side of his neck and passed out...

When Andrew awoke, he was dazed and saw only darkness. He could tell there was a bag over his head.

"Hello?" he called out nervously.

Someone sighed, and told another person to handle it.

"Alright," another man said, "I'll do it."

There was a small pause.

"Okay, kid, here's the deal, we have reason to believe that we're on the brink of nuclear war, so, as you may remember, in your school you recently took a number of surveys, those were really government surveys to decide who was best fit for placement in one of the special shelters constructed recently." Andrew recognized this voice as the one of the man in the suit.

Andrew couldn't remember the surveys, he could hardly remember anything, at this point.

"But... why?" Was all Andrew could muster.

"Because if this thing goes down, the world will need survivors." The was stern, and crushingly depressed, which was all the assurance Andrew need to know that this nuclear Holocaust was going to happen.

"Hey look on the bright side, kid, the shelter your going to is designed for young adults, much like yourself, I'm sure you'll do fine, well, better then you will out here at least." The man said with a nervous laugh.

Twenty minutes later, they arrived at the the shelter entrance, the man led him to the entrance and removed the bag.

"Your on your own from here on out kid, be careful, this door is on a timer and will close soon, so if I were you, I'd hurry on up inside."

"What about you?" Andrew asked.

"Me? Well I got mushroom cloud to drive into."

Learn more about this author, Adam Birmingham.
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