I peeked over the edge. Blinding white light struck my face; I shielded my eyes with my hand and I could feel the perspiration start to form on my skin. I didn't bother wiping it. Why should I? It wouldn't matter because it would all be over soon. I spun around, and laid on my back, looking up at the stars. Millions of those sparkling celestial bodies littered the sky.
It was getting harder to breathe. No matter, it would all be over soon.
I glanced at the other people on this stretch of land, families huddled together, crying, praying, no, pleading to their respective Gods. Even people I recognized as atheists did the same. Some people sat around their torn and destroyed houses, the rest sat huddled around what was left of a church. These people were pathetic. Especially the atheists, all their lives ignoring religion, living without faith, only to plead to "Something that didn't exist" when something terrible happened.
Humanity deserved this, after all the sins our race had committed, and now it was finally happening. We were dying. Along with the rest of the planet.
I had resigned to my grim fate; on the small piece of land we were on, few others on our fraction of the crust didn't weep or plead to God. Looking up, I saw another smaller part of the Earth's crust rocketing upward, way high above ours; I had seen it a while earlier, and it had two deer on it. Soon, they were going to leave Earth's atmosphere and burst.
Who knew, maybe they were already dead.
I took another glance at Earth's fiery core. It was smaller now, farther away. Still boiling hot.
I sighed, returned to my relaxed pose. It was getting even harder to breathe. Drawing heavier breaths, my gaze returned to the piece of rock with the deer on it. It had already exited Earth's atmosphere, and floated aimlessly in space. Was this all there was for us as well? Had our lives been completely pointless, was there nothing beyond this? I refused to believe that.
Ignoring these frightful thoughts, I refocused my eyes onto the stars illuminating the darkness of space. They seemed bigger; brighter. Approaching the fringes of our planet's atmosphere, my mind wandered to thoughts of what awaited me on the other side. Was it the burning torment of hell, was it heaven, or nothingness? I pictured my deceased brother. Was he waiting on the other side? Possibly.
As the boundary between our atmosphere and space grew shorter, I had already accepted my fate. I realized that no matter what happened after my death, I had no power over it. What was the point in wishing for things that would never come true? My eyes glossed over, and for the first time in years, I felt dread. My fingers clawed at the asphalt. I wasn't ready for death, but I embraced myself. Taking a shallow breath which I presumed to be my last, I closed my eyes and waited for the end.
Written by Sykokillah
Content is available under CC BY-SA
Thanks to Bethrebel, Nommehzombies, Mystreve, SoPretentious and Empyrealinvective for helping me on WW.