This is the first opportunity I've had to breathe all day, much less think about what is going on.
I'm not even at home...I'm writing this on my cell. The phone lines are swamped. Yay internet.
Even through the thick concrete walls of the booth, I can hear the newly-religious chanting and praising a God they didn't believe in twelve hours ago, hoping for an eleventh hour reprieve from the chair. I hate to tell ya this, but this is the thirteenth hour and we're all fucked. This is the Apocalypse and no amount of praying will stave off that which will be revealed.
We were sitting at home, I had a few hours before work and mom and I were watching teevee, when the announcement broke that a big earthquake had rocked Jerusalem. I remember thinking that was strange because I didn't know that there were many, if any, fault lines there, but was obviously wrong. I'm no scientist or geologist, y'know? But that's when the reports started getting weird...
We were sitting at home, I had a few hours before work and mom and I were watching teevee, when the announcement broke that a big earthquake had rocked Jerusalem. I remember thinking that was strange because I didn't know that there were many, if any, fault lines there, but was obviously wrong. I'm no scientist or geologist, y'know? But that's when the reports started getting weird...
For an hour, anchors in the Middle East had no words for what was happening so they let the video do the talking: shapeless forms and shadows were moving through the nighttime streets, there were explosions and screams, and panicked prayers sent up to an apparently deaf God.
After that first hour, I guess the producers at the news channels were worried that their viewers would start tuning out and they switched their coverage to something far more important and exciting, like an update on Brangelina's twins.
A couple of hours later, just as I was getting ready for work, the emergency broadcasting system was activated, but no further information was given. We went outside and saw that our neighbours were packing up their things and getting the hell out of Dodge. I tried to get someone to tell us what was going on, but no one would. Two gringas aren't worth the loss of time.
Inside, I could hear mom talking to Shawn over the phone. I walked back in and started to pack up bottles of water and food, whatever supplies we could carry. I heard mom close her phone then she came into the kitchen, her face pale, almost ashen, and asked her what was going on.
Shawn had told her what a couple of friends of his, who were vacationing in Jerusalem, saw. They weren't far from ground zero of the earthquake, staying at a hotel maybe five miles away. The quake woke them up, he said, and they went to their balcony and felt some kind of a shockwave. They said it was like a huge hammer had fallen.
After the shockwave passed, the air felt very weird. Heavy, they said, and foreign, like air that's been sealed up in a tomb for thousands and thousands of years.
Then they heard shrieks.
They told my brother that they'd never heard anything like it before, that the very sound chilled them to the bone.
They didn't have much more information than that. They slammed the doors of their balcony shut and ran into the bathroom to hide. He said that they said that whatever made that sound wasn't human.
At that point, they got cut off and Shawn made the decision to call us and tell us to get ready to go and that he'd be there to get us in half an hour.
When Shawn finally arrived and we were all packed up, we tried to think of someplace to go. But where do you go to outrun the Apocalypse? I thought the theatre might be a good place...or more specifically, the Projection Booth because of the concrete and the fact that you need a key to get up there. It's been about six hours since I showed up for my shift during the Apocalypse, but not to run shows. It's comfortable up here, but we can't stay here forever, not with the way the Zealots are calling for expiation. By the sounds of it, they're finding plenty of blood to spill in the name of their new Gods.
None of the reports I'm getting from various friends are any better. They've seen what's been Revealed, the Worlds Between Worlds. It's the Devil's playground for the next thousand years and we're His toys to do with as He sees fit...
© 2008 Kimyoo Films
*** This was written (on my cell phone!) for the second annual Blog Like It's the End of the World Day Friday the 13 of June, 2008. I had problems sending it from my phone to my site which is why it's WAY late in stead of just late. I did zombies last year and wanted to do something I find just as compelling and interesting: the End of Days (especially when there's religion involved, but plain ol' armageddon is good, too. By the way, if you follow that link to my LiveJournal, make sure you start from the bottom -- that would be the first Blog Like It's the End of the World post.) ***
2 comments:
Pretty cool!
I think we will both see the day when large swaths of the Middle East are nuked into lakes of molten glass. I just don't want to be breathing their fallout, is all. But the sunsets should be pretty for years and years after that, with all the ash in the atmosphere.
You know...I hadn't thought of that, that the "hammer" of my title could be a nuke. I was thinking of what a rend in the dimensions might feel like, but that's an apt observation...
The way things are going, I would not be surprised if we were nuked first, but being an optimistic pessimist, I'd have to hope that it wasn't too bad.
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