Falling Sky (Teen Fiction Contest | End of the World)

Falling Sky

At first, it looked like a bird--maybe a plane. I stared out the coach window as it navigated the winding roads, watching that strange black dot. It wasn't moving left or right--perhaps it was one of those space stations we always hear about on the news, or maybe it was the moon.

But as the night grew darker, that black dot only became larger, and it didn't glow as the moon would. I glanced around the coach, but my classmates were asleep. It would seem I was the only one who could see it.

A few hours later, the chiming of phones and panicked mutters of the kids I shared the bus with woke me from a sleep I'd not willingly fallen into.

My phone buzzed in my pocket--it couldn't be anything important. I had no one waiting for me at home.

But the horrified looks on my fellow students' faces made me think it was something else. Angst started to pool in my stomach, and as I pulled my phone from my pocket, I stared down at the screen--this wasn't real, was it?

I was still asleep.

This was a dream.

I glanced over Bethany's screen, the girl I was sitting next to. It read the same thing.

Every phone on the coach had received the same notice.

An asteroid ten times the size of that which had wiped out the dinosaurs was on a collision course with Earth. 

My heart skipped a few beats--my throat became so tight with dismay that I felt I couldn't breathe.

Scientists had tried everything, but nothing was going to stop that thing from hitting.

The coach driver forced the vehicle to stop, its tires screaming as they scraped against the concrete. We were still hours from school, and by the looks of it, he wasn't going anywhere.

Panic enthralled my class. Everyone burst out of their seats, yelling, crying--Jessica was even hugging her knees rocking back and forth.

Just fourteen hours to live?

What the hell was I supposed to do with that information?

I left the coach behind. There was no use staying amongst a panicking crowd of crying, bawling kids. I'd always been a loner, and that was how I planned to spend my last moments.

Some of the kids decided to follow, but when I reached the old barn at the turnoff into the city, they scurried off to find their families.

Me?

I had no one.

Silently, I followed the deserted road. The hum of the panicking city clung onto the night's warming air. The black sky started to glow an ominous orange, and riots eventually enthralled the night.

My walk ended upon the top of an old hill. 

It didn't hurt me knowing that everyone would be spending their last moments with the people they loved because once that rock hit, I'd be with the people I loved. Where this was devastation for most, for me...it was a long-awaited relief.

And as that burning rock raced towards me, in its blinding light, I saw not doom, but the open arms of the people I'd lost so long ago.