It was particularly peaceful today.
And after how hectic the rest of my week has been, I think I deserve it.
The temperature was perfect, the sun was shining, and I could hear the sounds of various conversations and playful children echoing softly in the background. It was almost enough to make me fall asleep, and I planned to.
Until I saw it.
The sky.
The sky was burning.
At least that's what it looked like when the blue hues of Earth's atmosphere suddenly started bleeding a vibrant reddish-orange, the clouds looking like soft cotton set on fire.
I stared at the strange phenomenon, slowly getting up from my all-too-comfortable park bench. A feeling of dread suddenly began to wash over me. It felt like being dunked in an ice-cold tub of water. I felt a chill run down my spine, even though I could physically feel the temperature of the environment slowly begin to rise. I don't know how long I was staring, but eventually I was able to snap out of it.
Taking notice of my surroundings, I realized it was quiet, eerily so. Not the reaction you'd expect when something this unnatural was happening, but it seemed like I wasn't the only one enamored by the blazing sky above us. Everyone, including people, children, and even animals, were all looking up. Seemingly trying and failing to comprehend what was happening.
And then, all of a sudden, it started.
Drops of liquid fire started falling from the sky. After the first few drops, all hell broke loose. Animals were freaking out and the people, as you would expect, did what people do. It was a rush, hundreds of people battling to get out of the area of impact, or at least find shelter from it. People were getting trampled in the chaos, and I could already see things being set aflame. Just like that, the long silence was broken with the screams and stomping of hundreds of people.
Deciding for myself that staying out here wasn't safe for me, I started making my way to the closest spot I would consider safe. Luckily, I tend to visit this park quite a bit, so I knew of an abandoned restroom close by and under maintenance. Usually, that would mean it was locked, but due to some events I'd rather not explain, I knew otherwise. After a couple of seconds spent pushing past the mindless horde, I saw it. Luckily, it seemed that everyone else was oblivious to their possible salvation. Probably ignored due to the huge "locked for maintenance" sign posted at its entrance.
Eventually, I made it to the Steel door of the broken restroom, pulled it open, and upon entry, locked it behind me. Unfortunately, it would seem that multiple other people noticed my actions, and soon enough, I started hearing banging on the other side of the door. The pleas and tortured screams of too many people reverberated throughout the room, but I didn't dare move. I had seen movies and read stories about situations like this, and I wasn't about to risk my life for random strangers. So I just closed my heart and my ears to it.
Eventually, it stopped. And by "It", I mean everything, no more banging on the door, no screams, the only ambient noises present were the crackle and popping of the flames that wanted to devour our world. Not knowing what else to do, I decided to take a peek outside, and the sights were horrifying. Everything was burning: the trees, the grass, the people. It was like staring into a sea of flames with only the charred remains of people, animals, and plant life, some already crumbling to ash, to contrast it. Looking away from the horrifying scene and trying to forget the faces that were forever etched with horror and agony, I pulled out my phone, idly noticing the rising temperature in my safe place, hoping the Internet would give me an answer to whatever was going on.
Scrolling and swiping through news feeds, I was left with even more questions and a mounting sense of dread;
Multiple massive tornadoes were moving through the entirety of France.
The entirety of Egypt was flooded, including its deserts.
A horde of flesh-eating locusts so large that they could darken the sky was moving through Mexico.
And it seems like Australia just disappeared, a gigantic hole where it used to be.
Losing my balance and dropping to the floor, I had no idea how to even comprehend all of this. It was the end of the world, it had to be. There was no other explanation for these strange and impossible events taking place. I took a breath, maybe I'll be fine, compared to what the other countries had to deal with, this was relatively tame and avoidable.
Just when I was starting to calm down, I heard it.
A boom so loud that I had to cover my ears to prevent going deaf. Seconds after that, I felt it. The earth trembled, and the shaking was so violent that I'm surprised this little bathroom hadn't collapsed yet. Eventually, that stopped, too. I made my way to the window again to take a peek, were we having earthquakes?
We weren't, but what I saw was much worse. It was so shocking, so unbelievable that I actually started laughing. Above the still raging sea of flames, we were getting another shower. Except this time, instead of liquid fire, it was meteors. Multiple meteors, each the size of a large building, filled the sky. Out of energy and hope, I just took a seat, getting comfortable. There was nothing I could do but wait for the inevitable. Eventually, I heard another crash, this one closer, louder, but I didn't even bother trying to block my ears. I could feel the shockwaves, the shaking of the ground intensifying with each second that passed. The sky gradually darkened, and a gust of hot air and dust blew through the cracks of the doorway until I could barely see anything. I eventually decided to close my eyes, knowing what would come next and not wanting to see it. At least I would get a quick death compared to the poor souls burning outside. Cooking to death here didn't sound that much better either.
I heard a storm drifting ever closer, the winds howling, the earth-shaking, and then....
Nothing.
Planet Kerion
Year 40210 AC (After Conquest)
After a long day at school, Djaryl usually liked to decompress with a good session of virtual instances. His most recent obsession was simulations. Complex calculations of multiple possibilities and infinite events using advanced computer Systems.
On his holographic screen, a devastated planet could be seen. Multiple craters fill its surface, with another wave of meteors incoming, just to be certain of absolute annihilation.
"Hand of the Creator" is currently the most popular game out right now. Its groundbreaking, complex simulations let you control the development of an entire planet and its various species. You could be a benevolent God leading your world to prosperity, a neutral entity that watches the natural progression of your planet, or a malicious entity, thriving off nothing but chaos.
Djaryl had long since lost interest in his world. At the start, he was very hands-on, bestowing blessings and horrors as he saw fit, but eventually, he just wanted to see how they would naturally evolve. While he found it silly that they still worshiped his avatar several millennia after he stopped interacting with them, he was also impressed with their rate of technological growth, at least for some time. Lately, they have stopped progressing. They were stagnant, boring even. It seemed greed and lack of unity brought them to a standstill. How disappointing.
With this in mind, he decided to end this iteration of his world.
There were a variety of ways he could, and he was keen to use all of them. He'd always wanted to see what the various effects would look like. He could observe the little AI-generated organism scurrying and trying to find safety; he could hear some of them praying to him for protection, he laughed. The technology behind this was amazing, 7.8 billion people and their environment individually rendered with their own systems to manage them, and that wasn't even counting the non-dominant species that also existed alongside the "homo-sapiens" as he had decided to name them. Having had his fill of chaos and deciding to put them out of their misery, he generated several meteors to crash into the planet's surface.
It was done, according to the statistics, there were no longer any living beings present in this world. Too bad his first iteration was such a failure, but oh well.
Time to start a new game.