************Hi ! I just wanted to thank you in advance for reading, it really means a lot to me : ). Before you continue though, I'd just like to let you know that yes, it is kinda long. Yes, it is in Italics, but only because this is the only P.O.V chapter and it's like a prologue in a sense. No, the whole story isn't in italics and the other chapters are not as long : ). Thanks for giving LROSS a chance and I hope you like it enough to read on...?
XOXOXOXXOXO
Aria
Chapter 1.1
My father was a science fanatic. Ever since he could remember he has had this intense need to explain the unexplainable. It's been his life work and although most of his efforts have gone...uh...unanswered, there was one that caught the world's attention: The end of life as we know it.
Religions talk about, Prophets of old speak of it, a dumb and poorly miscalculated Mayan calendar spoke of it but none have ever figured out the most important thing--when? My father did. Through research and countless years spent deciphering pass events - earthquake patterns, volcanic eruptions, land slides, continental shifts, scriptures, scrolls etc. - He discovered that the end of the world would not happen on one specific day, but throughout a period. He called it the 'Tempus Ignis Nex' Theorem, and in that theorem the end would come in 4 stages: Fire, Water, Earth and Air. But of course the world ignored him. Some did not believe the world would end at all. Others thought he was a crazy black man waving a dream instead of a bible. Most just laughed. None believed. I really wish they'd have listened.
I must admit to doubting him at times, especially when he began making us build our "refuge". But who could blame me? Every other 11-year-old on my block were having sleep overs, buying their first bra, first kisses and just generally being a kid. But no. Not Me. I was too busy lugging around bags of cement and tools and supplies everyday. Even in the winter. Yep. I was the 'freaky kid who'd rather play with dirt and a hammer than hang out.'
Junior high was hard enough without having, and I quote, "a science crazed weirdo" as a dad.There's puberty, boys the uninhibited love of Teen heart throb's and the constant pressure to fit in to worry about, but having your dad laughed at constantly...Let's just say I wasn't very popular among my peers. But I loved my father with all my heart, and whether the world ended or not, I was going to stick beside him through everything. Ridicule or not. And my mother, brother and baby sister were right behind me.
He had it down to the day, year and time, it was so exact; yet every time he went to the government, whom he spent most of his life working for, to tell them of his discoveries, they never listened. I know it must have hurt him deeply, the betrayal, but I'm sure, wherever they are, they're wishing they'd believed him now.
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December 31, 2018 11:59 PM was the very first stage, Fire.
The entire world was drunk off their asses and as usual, completely oblivious. Celebrating the new year and the prosperity and life that would come. They were incredibly wrong. When the clock struck 12:00 the dark night sky seemed to ignite with flame. Dancing across the moonlit sky was deep purples and oranges. Reds and yellows and blues. Flames ate up everything. My father told them that the sun would have a massive explosion and since the earth was steadily moving towards it the blast would eat up a lot of the atmosphere setting a lot of exposed things on fire.
Meteors that weren't detected by supposed 'scientists', hit the earth quickly and swiftly. One after the other. Pounding into it and killing almost everything in their wake. My father explained that dinosaur's once experienced the same thing, billions of years ago. The meteor shower had started to come at us for years but scientists thought that they would burn up in the atmosphere. I guess they never planned on the atmosphere being so weak.
Ignited chemicals caused explosions. Cars blew up causing yet again more fire. Brush fires spread to the point of no return and a lot of lives were lost. Water was running lower and lower. I almost felt bad for the firemen and the people who were outside. But then I remembered the ridicule my family faced for so long and all my guilt vanished.
It lasted for what seemed like forever and no one could contain it. Millions of people all over the world died of burns and exposure and drought, but I wasn't scared at all. My father built a large, fully functional, underground shelter and secured it with reinforced stone, titanium, aluminum, magnesium, fibrous refractory composite insulation, high temperature reusable insulation and reinforced carbon carbon. The same stuff they use on space shuttles. Yeah you get access to those things when the US Military and Area 54 owe you a lot of favors. He also built a fully functional "peeper". It's a small scope that peeks through the roof and allows you to see and vaguely hear the outside world.
Yes, My family and I were safe. But that didn't mean we could live with the screams of our surrounding neighbors. The last cries of death before life extinguished. The worst was the shrill cry of a baby which I'm almost positive was baby Tyson, Ms. Jemma'sson. I used to watch him while Ms. Jemma went to the store. Hiss screams, hiss coughing and finally...his silence. I think that was worse than all of it. My mother tried to unlock the combination doors but my father held her from doing so. I held my baby sister Laila, and she and I cried ourselves to sleep in my brother Jabari's arms that night. It would be the first of many nights like this.
We thought that fire was bad, but water was much, much worse.
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March 20, 2019 1:00 PM
A lot of people had passed away. At least that's what the radio station, that miraculously was still standing told us. "The death toll in the United States alone has reached 195 Million People. This is an estimate but we fear that it is far more." A raspy voice droned on to us through bits of coughing. "World totals have not been tallied as of yet. But the last time government officials had contact with International officials, several countries were still on fire." It was only a dent in the 9 billion people who populated the planet earth, but it was enough to send my mother into a frenzy of tears as she sobbed her way out of the living room and into my parents bedroom. My little sister stood up to follow her but I held her close to me and told her to leave her alone. Lailawas only 8 and didn't know much of what was going on, but she did know that it was bad, and that fact alone aged her way beyond her years.
"Everyone is at the steps of what used to be the White house, begging President Muniz for help. He can flash those fake smiles and lie all he wants, but the truth is we can't rely on him anymore. We need something more. If there are any churches left in this area, I believe now is the time to start praying. Pray for water. That's all we need. I guess Dr. Hakeem was right huh?" The voice said hoarsely. Though the hoarseness did nothing to disguise the bitterness. "Where's our great savior now though? Still run..." The voice started to ramble but my father quickly shut it off before we could hear anymore. He left the room and went to the back storage room that he made sure we couldn't go inside of. We sat in silence for a while but Jabari, as always, changed the mood with a joke and everything went back to normal. Well as close to normal as it could get in a dark underground Refuge.
I watched everyday as the world had tried to rebuild itself. Tried to make amends and heal what had already begun. No such luck.
It seemed like just a regular day from what I could see through the peeper but as soon as the clock struck 1:00 there was a rumble in the cloudless sky and the rain started to fall. REALLY hard. It was as If the skies opened up and an endless supply of water just came crashing down. It reminded me of the story of the great flood that Brother Malcolm told me when I was a little girl. 40 days and 40 nights of water. But if that weren't enough massive tidal waves and flash floods started taking over everything. I live in the middle of America and if I'm seeing ocean creatures from here, then you can imagine what I mean. Buildings were uprooted from their very foundation. Bodies floated around life less and blue. Almost ghost-like. The radio station was still, miraculously, working we could hear that most of the world has been taken over by floods. People gripping the Dubai tower and freezing to death by trying to climb mount Everest. It was crazy. My father set up a radar view of the world before we entered the refuge, and every time, the radar slowed. More and more land was swallowed by the sea. The whole surface of the earth had just...changed.
But no matter what changed around us, we were safe as our refuge reinforced with Long lasting, chemical endurance tested steel and Glass reinforced plastic. Not one drop of water made its way to us, or our supplies. My father wasn't a fool. We made sure to gather everything we'd need to restart our earth and survive the impending days. Enough freeze-dried, canned and non perishable food for 7 years as well as water. Seeds, pairs of animals and what they would need as well. Medicine and books on herbs that could be procured later for medicine. The very last thing he procured were weapons.
Weapons of almost every sort. Machetes, Throwing Knives, Mallets, Spears, Whips, Bows and Arrows and so much more. They could all be rebuilt or reused and they could last forever. I didn't understand why couldn't we just get guns and shoot anything bad down. He explained that guns need a constant supply of ammunition. We don't have a place to get them anymore or to make anymore so we have to use tools that don't have to constantly be restocked.
He'd always say "Baby girl, when this ends, we don't know what's outside. We don't know how the world has changed and we don't know what could be out there. Whether I'm there or not, I want to know that you guys will always be protected.
"Besides," he'd say, "Guns are for cowards. It takes a real man with real courage to kill with a proper sword."
I used to laugh and shake my head at him and just to constantly remind him that I wasn't a man. Tomboy or not, I was no boy, and I made sure he knew that.
My father had built a special room even deeper underground, under the place where the food is. He stored the weapons in there, but the room also became our training grounds. Learning Archery, how to properly wield a sword, Running for stamina and strength training as well as combat and pretty much everything he'd learned while he was in the military, plus so much more.
We'd spend our days reading and learning, so as not to forget the past world, as well as training. Except for mother of course.
That was out life.
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August 16, 2019 7:07 AM
The waters started receding 2 months ago. Though it wasn't much, and our world's landscape had changed drastically, I was beyond happy. I was so tired of listening to Dolphins squeal and watching a real life version of 'Whale Wars' on Animal Planet. Slowly but surely the radar beeped faster and faster, telling us that land was coming back yet again, just with a few more lakes and marshes than before.
I looked out of the peeper and finally saw some semblance of civilization. A few people who looked washed out, and hungry, and half-naked. The numbers were drastically lowered, and they looked absolutely miserable, but it was nice to see something without fins. The radio station had been down for a while but we eventually got that back too. Just with a new announcer, and he didn't tell us news. No, he played country western music. The same old blue grass, hick, don't-break-my-achy-breaky-heart music was on most of the day. Announcements from Washington were still coming of course. Wouldn't want a mutiny.
I woke up that morning on the floor. The Refuge was shaking tremendously. I ran to my baby sisters room and grabbed her hand and ran to the living room to find my father smoking his pipe in his chair and my brother reading a book, seemingly unphased. My sister was wailing in my ear but if I were a 9-year-old, I'd probably be doing the same.
"Stage 3?" I asked aloud and my father just nodded. This stage would be a long one. The continents should be shifting on the plates. Some will break apart and fall into the ocean, some will become Islands on their own. A few will get pushed together somehow to form these super continents. It sounded like a lot of rocking and falling when I heard my dad talk about it, but nothing compared to living it.
I gave my sister to my brother and immediately went to the peeper. I saw a Walmart that was badly water damaged fall to the ground in a big heap. The big cross was the only thing left of the church my mother used to attend. It fell over on its side, splintering off. The middle of our old street cracked right down the middle and the few people who were left were screaming at the top of their lungs until they gurgled and eventually were silent as they fell in.
Earthquakes and land slides. Horrible things. But we were safe. Everything was secured and welded to the ground by the most unmovable, impenetrable substances. It also reinforced our refuge so nothing was hurt.
This was a hard time.
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December 4, 2019 4:02 PM
The earth kept shaking on and off for a while but eventually that too stopped. Not before California, what was left of Hawaii, Chile, Argentina, and Japan fell into the Pacific though. The lucky few who survived were now clumping together in hopes of rebuilding the world we once knew. They would gather what few things they had left and scavenge for the others. Even going so far as to kill one another for more. It was like the world had turned to shit. They were animalistic almost, barbarians. I find it fascinating that even after so many of our world have died, people still have the nerve to kill each other. For no real reason. Well that was before the winds came...
Tornadoes came from everywhere whipping cold air and snow and sand and dirt and debris with them. I saw a Radio signal, the ones that stand 100's of feet in the air, fall over and tumble around in the midst of one. It knocked over a man who just didn't get away on time. It also put a dent in our peeper, which made it almost impossible to see out of.
Thankfully I know that this is the last stage and that things should hopefully get better.
The best part, or the worse part, of this whole thing is that I finally turned 12.
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June 29, 2020
I was going stir crazy. If my father forced me to read Shakespeare or Homer or Jane Austen one more time I may have just killed him in his sleep. I would never do that but the thought is till there. There is only so much"Thy" and "Thee" and "Doth" and Mr. Darcy that a girl can take. I once was able to stomach it knowing that I could at least see out of the peeper but I couldn't see a damn thing and all I want to do is go outside, that's all. I had no idea how Jabari could stand it. He just turned 16 and from what I'd heard, teenagers go crazy being cooped up after so long. They at least attempt to sneak out or do grown up stuff.
It surprised me that he wasn't clawing at that walls and screaming his throat raw by then. The one plus about this whole situation is that we'd grown closer. We were never really at odds when our world was still the same. Due to the age difference, we just stayed away from each other mostly.But we'd gotten so close in fact that we even slept in the same room for a while. He was my best and only friend, not counting Nala, my old cat and Laila who was now 10 going on 11. Laila's only interesting conversational topics are about Hello Kitty and my old Twilight Books books.
I think I had something to do with the fact that Jabaris wasn't going crazy. We had a lot of fun together and he often told me that I was the little brother he always wanted, just a little naggier. Yeah I think I helped a lot. Well me and the stack of Playboy's my dad gave him that I found under his pillow a while back. If we ever left this refuge I swear the first thing I'm finding him is a girlfriend. Fast.
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October 12, 2015
My mother was sick for a long time. We'd give her herbs and medicines to help her along and we thought she was getting better. But she was only getting worse. We'd thought it was only a common cold but fever came soon after. It would break, but it would only come back hours later. Off and on and eventually, her body just gave up on her. She died that morning and I didn't think anything would ever break my heart like it did then. I'd never see my mother smile anymore. Hear her sing to me when I got a stomach ache. Never feel the world's greatest hugs ever again... But seeing my father break down that night after burying her earlier made me reconsider.
I was angry with her. Angry with her for leaving me all alone. What about me? What about Laila? Who was going to teach us about womanhood? About love? About how to deal with men and their stupid ways? Who was going to watch us and cry while we walked down the aisle to get married? Help us raise our children...?
And then it hit me. We may very well be the last people alive for miles and miles.
I have to face that I may just die old and alone. Never having children of my own. Never helping to make more babies like the bible tells us to. Nothing.
I realised then that my mother didn't die from a sickness, she died of a broken heart. Knowing she could never have all she wanted for her children. Knowing that she herself would never see my Nana and Papop back in Miami.
I held my father and we both cried until I fell asleep in his lap, his warm, salty tears blanketing my cheeks with despair.
R.I.P Vivian Amia Johnson Batiste, I'll miss you mommy.
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December 7, 2020
Daddy was always so warm. He never acted like the stereotypical military father. Yeah we had to keep a clean home and good grades and manners, but he was never harsh or crude. His smile was the sun, breaking through the clouds after a long rain It was a symbol for hope and it showed that he loved us. He was amazing and funny and kind.
But when mommy died, so did my sun. He never did anything like he used to. He didn't smile. He didn't laugh. He didn't play around. Nothing. Except train us. Viciously and meticulously he trained. Every single day. I worked muscles I never knew I had and when it came to hand to hand combat, he never went easy on us. Not because we were his children, or because Laila and I were girls. He said it didn't matter. No one outside would take it easy on us, so neither would he. Every time I left the training room, my bruises had bruises. I'm pretty sure I'd broken a few fingers from punching sacks and Jabari, but he would just tape them up every night and we'd work even harder.
"Master the pain girl." He'd tell me. "It only hurts if you let it. Pain is just a state of mind." Even Laila was now sporting a miniature Bow and Arrow and a mean right hook, though she managed to stay away from most training, because she had house work to do.
Though the hard training slowed it down a lot, genetics quickly took over and my body started changing a little while ago. I was a late bloomer and had just started to sprout breasts. But once they sprouted, they continued to grow like wild and I could then fit my mothers old bra...eck. My family had always been...chesty, even when young, but my father just worked me harder so thatwouldn't be a nuisance. Along with boobs came hips and along with hips came my first period. On my 13th birthday.
I thought I was dying I swear. I screamed when I went to bathroom. I thought I got stabbed down there and that i was going to die. I ran to my fathers waiting arms and cried.
"Baby girl, what's wrong?" He'd asked and held me out to look me up and down.
"Dad I'm dying." I'd said in the most serious voice I could muster up.
"How do you know?" he'd asked and looked really sad.
"Because I'm bleeding."
"Where?" He asked in his Daddy-In-Charge voice.
"Down there." I'd said pointing to my crotch. But he just smirked at me and let me go and I was beyond pissed. He thought that my death was funny.
"Glad you think it's funny." I said and cried some more but he made me dry my tears and explained to me that I was now a woman. I didn't feel like I was different. But he told me that i could have babies now, which only made me sadder because I knew that it would not happen.
He just left me alone in the bathroom with reusable napkins and told me to hurry up for training.
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August 31, 2021
Father finally fixed the peeper. And what we saw was unlike anything I'd ever seen. Trees overtook everything. And birds. The sandy plain that used to greet was overrun by green. Buildings that we thought were all gone were still in tact, just redecorated with green moss and shrubbery. The sun beat down and it looked like how imagine the garden of Eden to look.
I begged my father to let us go out but he would not let us. My brother had began to grow impatient as well but instead of bugging dad, he just trained. I took up his example when I realised that dad wasn't going to budge. We sparred together in man to man, or as I would like to call it man to girl, combat. He would beat me every time but eventually I bested him. He even helped me handle my sword better. I tried to teach him the art of knife throwing but he couldn't aim worth a shit.
Laila was getting better with her Bow as well. Life to me just seemed to revolve around the peeper and training. That was fine with me.
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March 1, 2022 (Present Day)
There was a loud Clang and several bangs then I heard it. The voice of people. Men specifically.
"Quick before they wake up!" A man whisper yelled. So there's more than one?
"Let them wake up. We can handle them. Besides, I think this is where that fucking scientist lives. If it wasn't for him--" One man said.
"Then you wouldn't be alive you dumb shit." Another man cut them off. I heard them walk around the supplies room. Oh hell no the messed with the wrong one!
I got out of bed in my dress. It's kind of short but we recently realised that, even though I'm only 5'3, I outgrew my mom's hand me downs and that this was my only alternative. Go figure. I wish I had jeans on, but I have no time. It seems that I am the only one awake in my refuge and I have to protect what's mine. I grab my belt of throwing knives and my boots and walk out to the noise.
"They have everything in here. Stuff i haven't seen since before the fires. Oh look a Twinkie!" A man says.
"Grab it and put it in the bag." I round the corner and see three men.They're white, they're clothes are more like dirty scraps of fabric that are barely hanging on and barely covering vital areas, they look around 30 or so and they look really rough and horrible. Like they haven't bathed in years and like they were more animal than human. They look a bit thin but you can see they'd eaten recently.
I pulled out two knives and wait for my opportunity. There's two rummaging through our supplies and the other, posted against the wall eating a package of freeze-dried apples. I walk slowly so as not to make a sound. Tip toeing, waiting for my opportunity to strike.
"Look what I found!" The one holding the bag said lifting it up in the air. Bingo! I quickly threw the knife in my left hand at the bag and it sliced though and took the bag and pinned it to the wall like a dart. I hid behind the wall again.
"Who's there?" A gruff voice asked. I remained silent, I didn't even dare to breathe but I remained calm. Serene. 'Stay focused Aminat.' I heard my father's voice in my head. 'Don't let anticipation or fear cloud your mind'.
"Come out and show yourself you fucking coward!" Another said though his voice trembled slightly. Oh look who's afraid of the little-big bad wolf?
"You have 5 seconds or I'll shoot!" Another said in a menacing tone. Ah fudge! Why'd they have to have guns? I quickly run across the hall behind another wall. I can see them but they can't see me. The one holding the shotgun cocks it and starts walking around he heads towards me and I take this opportunity to throw my next knife right through the palm of his hand. He immediately drops it.
"Fuck!" He yells.
"What the hell was that?" The one that was holding the bag yells.
"I don't know but when I find it, I'm going to kill it." The one I stabbed said pulling the knife from his hand. He's not even going to get the chance. I watched all three men stand close together like cowering little girls. I entered the room with two knives in my hands.
"Get the fuck out of here." I said in the most menacing voice I could muster up. I didn't scream and I didn't fret, I stood my ground like a boss. They laughed however, like me hurting them was the most ridiculous thing they'd ever heard.
"Oh look! It's a girl!" The one that was holding the bag says.
"She's a fine one isn't she. Don't see 'em made like this no more." He said licking his lips, his yellowed ground teeth showing slightly. "Probably the last black girl too, but I don't mind too much." He says starting to smile. "Haven't been with a real girl in years."
"What about Viola?" One asks him.
"She's not a real woman. She was so skinny and broken when we took her, she was temporary satisfaction." He said matter of fact-ly.
They really don't know who I am. I just laughed.
"What?" the one I stabbed says.
"You have 15 seconds to leave this place. If you don't, then you will die."
"Yeah? And who's going to kill us? You? I don't think so." The big one who smiled earlier said. "First we're going to take your food and your water, then we're going to take you, over and over until we're spent. And last we're going to kill you and whoever else is here and take this place as our own. Got that sweet cheeks?"
I just stood there. "Please! I'd like to see you try! Oh by the way, 7 seconds."
They just laughed and started walking slowly toward me.
"3,2,1." I said and immediately moved to stab The one who was claiming to "fuck" me, in the stomach. He reeled back, clutching at his gut.
"You bitch!" The one that was holding the bag said. He pulled back his fist to connect with my face, but I grabbed his sorry excuse for a punch with my hand and immediately stabbed him in the artery that is under his arm. He wouldn't give up however and tried to grab me, but I quickly maneuvered from his grasp and kicked the back of his knees with my heeled boot. He fell to the ground, but not before I sliced through his spinal cord.
The one I stabbed in the stomach regained his balance and came toward me again, he almost got me but I quickly ducked back from his grasp and slit his throat on the way. There's only one left now, but as I suspected, he was a coward and tried to run to the gash they made in the wall to leave. I quickly threw another blade and it cut directly into his heart.
They were all dead. And i was covered in blood. I don't like to kill, and I don't like to hurt anything considering the state the human race was in now. 'You will do anything it takes to survive Aminat. Do you understand me?' I recalled my Father saying to me once when I used to cower at the thought of killing another living thing.
"Yes Sir." I said aloud, dryly.
If this is the world that awaits us outside then I'm not happy, but I know I have to go out and start our world over.
It's my destiny.
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Hi everyone! This is my first story like this one. This was just the prologue/1st chapter, the whole story isn't written as a Journal, I just wanted to introduce you guys to Aminat. I hope you like it thus far and please don't hesitate to comment any suggestions or advice : )
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WHATEVER ROCKS YOUR BOAT,
XOXOXOXO
ARIA
CHAPTER 1.2 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>