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THE DAY THAT DEATH SHALL TOLL IT'S BELL and call forward; some believe it to be set in stone.
From the moment we take our first breath, death looms above our heads, quietly waiting. Each year we grow older, we pass a date. Our death date. We treat it as no other, only trying to make it through those twenty-four hours, oblivious to what lies ahead on this exact same day. It could be years from this point. Months, if you were unlucky. Days.
Eventually, will come our last. A day full of lasts. Waking up in your bed, having a meal. A hug you give a loved one. The last full breath, until your lungs hitch up, unable to do anything but finally release one more broken exhale.
Nobody could ever know when it would occur. That was what was so frightening about it all. One could never trust that tomorrow would be there. Beth couldn't. Allie. My mom, and my father. Tyreese, Bob, and all the others we'd lost along the way.
Death would just take and take, until itself was the only inhabitant. A whole world, unleashed with the only beings left; the dead. Was the whole universe splitting down the middle? All the different planets, and potential forms of life — were they brought under effect, too? Or, was it only us which had been affected by such an imbalance? This was another extinction event, just like the ones before us.
For a moment, I relished on the thought of being up there, in space. Tucked around stars, silence the only sound I could process ever again. The small ringing whistling in my eardrums, dancing on the inner walls. I'd look down at Earth. I wouldn't be able to see all the destruction from up here. It would still look like home, but, I wouldn't miss it. I'd just be somewhere else. Not gone, just, present on my own accord. I'd be wherever my shuttle took me. Through the folds of interstellar travel. It was almost better than being in a boat.
But then, the idea didn't sound so great when I thought about other things. For instance, food, because if anyone knew there wasn't an unlimited supply, it would be me. I would become skinnier than I'd ever been, until nothing but bones made me up. Then, I'd die up there. Alone. There was also the component that I had no idea how to operate a spaceship. If I were tasked with something as simple as opening the doors, I would have failed miserably. I might have even pressed the panic button, and put the whole thing up in flames.
