Ward wakes up on a warm Tuesday morning in June. He doesn’t have class today and he even traded shifts at work to have the day off. He’s sleeping in, something he doesn’t get to do often when the sun shines onto his face. He yawns, stretches and he rolls over to check the time.

6:56. Blink. 6:56. Blink. 6:56. Blink. 6:57. Blink.

He must have lost power this morning. That’s weird, the weather seems fine. He chalks it up to another fault of his apartment complex along with the terrible parking, hit-or-miss hot water, and nosy next door neighbor. He crawls out of bed and goes to grab his cell phone to check the real time. He sets about resetting his clocks, 2pm on the nose, how strange. He pulls up a weather website on his phone to check what the weather was like at 7am, around the time his apartment lost power. Nothing. Ward sets his phone down and hops in the shower. The icy water shocks him awake but it slowly heats up.

Then his entire apartment begins to shake. It’s subtle at first, like someone with too much bass just turned on their stereo. Ward ignores it and keeps cleaning. Soon the rumble has built to the point Ward hears something fall off his shelf. Ward kills the water and grabs a towel just as the worst hits. His entire apartment slams and Ward’s feet slip out from under him. His head catches the towel rack on his way down and the blood sprays the wall. Ward struggles to get upright just as another quake hits, sending him tumbling to the floor again. He’s dizzy from the blow to the head and the shaking ground isn’t helping.

The rumble dies down and Ward makes his way into his living room, towel wrapped around his waist to stop the water and another around his head to stop the bleeding. He turns on his TV to check the news. Confused about what the hell is going on he flips to the local Channel 7 News.

… in almost every civilization nation. Top scientists report the quake is only a 4.4 magnitude on the Richter Scale but can not account for the world-wide accounts. This is an unprecedented event in human history and scientists exists that it may take years to fully understand. We repeat, we have reports coming in from around the world, a massive earthquake has been reported in almost every civilization nation. Top scientists report the quake is only a 4.4 magnitude on the Richter Scale but… What’s that? I’m sorry, but we just had a bizarre report from our meteorologist, Pat Bennett,  that the sun has… Has what? No, I’m not saying that. That’s insane!

Ward jumps to his feet and throws the door to his balcony open. It is as black as night out and Ward looks into the sky. The sun is solid black, not the black of a solar eclipse. The only words that Ward can think to describe it are from a song, “The sun is black as sackcloth made of hair”. The next verse rushes into his head as he watches as a meteor shower lights up the sky overhead, “The stars have fallen to the earth, mountains tearing from the ground”. Ward isn’t sure what’s going on but when the winds picks up, up-rooting a tree from the ground, Ward runs back inside.

The TV has cut out and is showing only static now. Ward doesn’t pay it any attention but grabs all the blankets and pillows he can find. He runs back into the bathroom and throw the pillows into the wet bathtub basin. He crawls in, pulling heavy blankets over his head, and lays there. He can feel the cold water soaking through the pillows and the warm blood from his head wound cooling against his cheek. Ward cries. His body trembles with fear and terror as the hours pass. The winds outside howling the world’s end.

And then it all ends. Silence fills the room, the apartment, the streets, the world. Ward calms himself but waits. Secure in his bathtub bed. Ward waits and waits until the silence is broken. Outside his apartment rings a blood curdling scream. Ward jumps from his hiding place and rushes into his bedroom. He hesitates a second then stops to put on pants. He slowly walks over to his bedroom window to pull the curtain aside. Ward peers outside and the scene he sees is burned into his brain.