When Will It End? (Updated)

Chapter One: When Will it End?

A//N
Totally rewrote this book! I had written this book about two years ago, so I thought it was time to update it.

While rereading this book, I noticed some sections didn't really make sense with what was happening in the story, so I changed it! I hope you enjoy the new and improved version of this book!
A//N

I'm lying on my small messy bed thinking of life before this waste land. I'm tired of sitting in this small, wearisome house, waiting for someone to rescue me. I hate the feeling of helplessness, but I find myself feeling that way often. Especially now, with the air outside being too toxic to leave the shelter of this building. I've watched people die from the toxic gasses that linger in the outside air. My best friend, Amber, was one of those people. I watched her die in front of my window. I wish I would have done something, but I didn't, I couldn't.

She meant a lot to me, y'know. She was the only person that didn't care what life I came from. I would go to her house almost every day. I loved walking across the quiet street in the morning, climbing up blooming vines that covered her house, and crawling in through her window that was on the second floor. I remember her letting me borrow one of her dresses for a dance our town was having. The dress was violet and was quite flowy. Amber let me borrow a lot of her clothing. She used to style my hair almost every day while we sat and talked about what we were going to do that weekend. She was the best and only friend I ever had. I miss her, almost as much as I miss them.

My parents left right before this apocalyptic world began. They left home for work often and didn't come back for days. I was so used to them leaving, I didn't say goodbye when they left, I just nodded my head and went up to my room. I never realized how much I loved them until they were gone.

I sit up from lying on my bed so I can glimpse at the outside world. What I see is vast and desolate, uninviting yet fascinating at the same time. My parents are out there somewhere, and I can't do anything to help find them. I wish they were here to comfort me. I brush away a tear that fell from my eye. I have no idea were they went when they left. They never answered their phones and I didn't ask where they were going. I never did before, but now I wish I would have. I wish I would have done a lot of things.

Sometimes I think that the air outside will contaminate my house. I worry that it will start seeping through invisible cracks in the walls, or that something will shatter the glass windows that look outside. Then I remember my parents renovating. They sealed off every space and gap that outside air could possibly enter the house. They added these strange machines around the house, making cutouts in walls that lead outside, cutouts that perfectly fit each machine. I'm assuming the machines clean the air somehow, filtering it so it's not toxic. I find them quite annoying. They make an inescapable humming sound that drives me insane! I'm glad to have headphones to drown out the noise. I wear them almost all the time, roaring music into my ears. I probably have hearing damage now, but I really don't care.

When getting off of my bed I feel something small underneath my left foot. When I move my foot to see what it is, I find a blue thumb drive with the words "Hannah" written on it with a black marker. I carry the thumb drive to my wooden desk and insert it into my old laptop my dad gave me for my fifteenth birthday. When I open the laptop it makes an obnoxiously loud noise that scares me half to death.

"Holy crap," I mutter as I slow my heart rate down, clicking the thumb drive icon that pops up on the bright screen. I forgot how loud this thing was.

When the file finally loads, I see a smiling family. My family. I sit on a high chair with my parents standing behind me. There's a wooden table in front of us that holds a small cake. It was my first birthday. The camera that took this was an older model, I can tell from the fuzzy picture. I look to see if there is a name to this file, but what I find is written in a language that I don't understand. I then remember my parents wanting me to learn a new know language. They said it would be useful in my future. For years I had my room filled with sticky notes decorated with words I couldn't understand. After three years of this treatment, and me not retaining a single word, they gave up.

As I look through more family pictures I realize how long it's been since this disaster started. It's been days since the T.V. told the world not to go outside, almost six, at least that's what I think. The days seem endless and blur together when you have nothing to do. I keep the T.V. on for most of the time, waiting for someone to say something. So far, there's been nothing good. The news said the air was getting worse and going outside would be suicide. I knew this wasn't going to get better anytime soon.

When I reach the end of the file, I turn my laptop off and get up from my desk. Wanting to go watch T.V. I walk down the stairs. As I'm going down, my stomach growls. I haven't eaten much since this began. The living room is connected to the kitchen anyway, so I might as well go find something to eat. As I look in the fridge I start thinking of what could possibly cause something like this to happen. I'm not sure what caused this to happen but I know that something "BIG" did this. Something that wanted us "DEAD", did this, but no one knows anything about it.

Grabbing a small bowl of grapes from the fridge, I head to the living room and plop myself on the couch. I place the bowl on the coffee table that sits in front of me and grab the remote for the T.V. As I turn on the T.V. I start to consider the option of going outside. Dark thoughts enter my mind as I think of what would happen to me if I opened the door. What's the point of living if you only die at the end? It's easy for me to think that when everything that I love is gone.

Tears run down my pale face. Loneliness is killing me. It's sharp claws dig into my skin as its cold arms wrap around me. I'm suffocating in its grasp, unable to leave. I sit on the couch with my knees against my chest just waiting for this to be over.