the fall of liberates
The last sound Earth heard was a life support machine letting one last person go. There were no doctors, no visitors, no nurses, no one to wish him farewell. As the deafening beep stopped, tv static replaced the sound, leaving the world on an eternal pause. Cars were scattered throughout the streets, the only living thing breathing in the toxic air were the skeletons of trees that once stood proudly in every park, neighborhood, and forest.
It rained that evening, and steam rose from the asphalt and dead grass. The houses and buildings groaned with relief as the water alleviated stress from the abandonment of mankind. The interesting thing about the humans’ “abandonment” was that it was planned, but unexpected. They all knew that their greed, and violence, and vices would come at a price, Mother Nature made sure of that, and God wasn’t anywhere to save them.
On the first day, the day became night. Ships began to go missing over the span of a few hours, airplanes went off chart, and animals began the maul each other and their owners, if they had any. Hospitals became so crowded they had to move patients to the roof, people began to “disappear” in the middle of the night, only to be discovered face down in the street 6 stories below, the next morning, or what was supposed to be. This went on for 6 sunless days, until every natural disaster imaginable seemed to emerge all simultaneously. On the seventh day, when all that could be heard was smoke rising, and car alarms still echoing throughout every corner of every city and town, the day came back, and it was good.
On a man-made island a mile off the coast, the sun had set and a woman knew it was time to go, she fondly remembered a man who had always smelled strongly of Alsatian wine, dancing under the lights of the Unterlinden Museum around midnight, but he was taken by them, and her face became hard without any expression. Her children had their minds twisted into the panicked wits of people she did not recognize, they weren’t hers anymore. The economy was bankrupt and so was her soul, she stood on the beachside cliff where she fell in love one thousand years ago, in a time where the worries of her “today”, were the unimaginable nightmares of yesterday.
Moments passed, the wind blew softly, but strong enough to keep the waves moving the current, something the moon stopped doing years ago. A ship sailed by along the darkening horizon, and a spark of hope lit up her eyes. She quickly realized the only “ships” that would be traveling are just broken pieces of boats, buildings or even cars that happened to be swept along in the aimless swirls and turns of Earth’s pond. She was always an optimist, even during the wars when battleships sped by radiating anger and nationalism, she always knew they were all united “Under God”, but now standing one mile away from shore, on an island surrounded by the desolation of what her image symbolized, she denied His existence.
Her tears glistened in the setting spotlight of a deceased metropolitan society, as she felt the ground beneath her feet leave, she thought she heard the faint laughter of small children. The last thing she saw was a bouquet of balloons slowly floating above her, while the world below became closer and closer. She shut her eyes and smiled as someone gasped from above the cliff, but she never heard it again.