by Theresa Curnow

Created on: April 02, 2007   Last Updated: May 14, 2007

Starry Night.

Mark sat on the top of the hill and gazed at the sunset before him. It was a beautiful evening for the world to end, he thought. The sky was so clear and the first stars were just beginning to show their light. He turned his gaze from them and to the person sitting next to him. His girlfriend Sarah. Her face was calm and still. She possessed a serenity that he didn't have, he thought. She hadn't cried much at all since the news a year ago of the imminent asteroid strike. Instead, she had packed as much as she could into her life. They both had. They had traveled around the world, seen all the places they had ever wanted to see, tasted all the food they had never before tasted. It was just a shame that they hadn't achieved all that before, when they had thought they would both live to a ripe old age. That dream of an old age would never happen now, he thought. In a short while, an asteroid the size of a small planet would completely destroy the world and everything on it.

Behind him, in the small town that he called home, there came shouts and screams and gunfire. Anarchy had taken over in the last few days. People were trashing shops and businesses and stealing the goods, running down the dirty streets with televisions, computers, stereos, anything that they could get their hands on. Mark wondered why they wanted these things now when all they really needed was what he had in his hands right now. He lifted the vintage bottle of wine and poured another glass for him and Sarah. In front of them were the remains of their picnic. They had packed all their favorite foods and like condemned prisoners had savored every mouthful.
"Do you think that we'll feel anything?" he heard Sarah say.
He looked at her and saw for the first time, apprehension in her brown eyes.
He placed an arm around her shoulders. "It'll be quick," he said. "We won't feel a thing."
"Gone in the blink of an eye," Sarah murmured. "As if we never existed at all."
She turned her face away from him and for a second he thought he heard her choke back a sob then she had turned back and her face was serene again.
"We existed alright," he said. "We had a good life Sarah and we had each other."
"I'm glad we never had children," she said.
They were silent for a moment, both thinking their own meandering thoughts, of what had gone, of what might have been.
"We have to see your father before it happens," Mark said, breaking the silence.
Sarah sighed. "He won't see me, not even now."
"He has to"
Mark

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next Page >>