A Moment’s Apocalypse

“Good morning, my friends. Sadje gave us this image of a hug by Image credit; Josue Escoto @ Unsplash, for her What Do You See Challenge this week.
I also used the following prompts:
Ragtag Daily Prompt – Joker
Pensitivity’s Three Things Challenge — Fool, Prank, Silliness
Fandango’s One Word Challenge — Interrupt
Sometimes we really need a hug, don’t we? It doesn’t matter if it’s from family, friend, or a stranger, sometimes a hug means so much in our time of need. Do you like a hug and for what reason, I bet its not for a reason like this – Buckle up for this one!”

A Moment’s Apocalypse

I couldn’t catch a proper breath. The dust and adrenaline left me wheezing like an asthmatic. What the hell happened?

This was April Fool’s Day, a day of silliness, a chance to play the joker. I was no fool and this was no prank. Something had just exploded!

I’d been watching a monster movie on TV when the newsreader’s face cut in. She said ‘We interrupt ­—’ and that was it. The power died as a blast struck my building. A wall of shock and fire blew out the windows and shattered the walls.

Darkness

Silence

For the longest moment, my coughing and wheezing broke the suffocating silence. I lay wearing what felt like the whole building. Everything hurt and I could smell blood as I lay waiting for the angels to take me.

Distant gunfire and explosions became the backdrop of terror.

I tried to roll, to push debris aside, to free a leg. Each move was agonising, ribbons of pain emanated from my ribs, and my shoulder flared in time with the pounding in my head. The weight never relented. I screamed as I forced all my power into the concrete and plasterboard over my head.

It moved an inch!

Hope trembled within me.

I panted for breath, fighting the panic that threatened to overwhelm my stressed senses.

I shoved again, rolling with it this time.

The obstruction slid away, allowing milky light to filter into my cavity.

My mouth was full of dust. I coughed to clear it, then sucked in a lungful of air. It burned my chest and made me cough more.

I sat through tearjerking ribbons of pain in my ribs and dug my legs free, My right knee was blood-stained, a shard of glass sticking through my jeans above the patella.

There was no survival with that in there. I grabbed the glass and yanked it free. A dagger of agony tore from me as a scream.

My flat was gone, I staggered to my feet surrounded by rubble. My bedroom used to be to the left. There was nothing but a gaping drop beyond the crumpled door frame.

The wall my TV occupied was also gone. I could see the city sprawling out there. Fires poured smoke into the darkening sky from many places. The Canary Tower which dominated the skyline was gone.

As I watched two Apache helicopters roared overhead and arced into the city. Tracer rounds erupted from their twin guns and blazed into …

“What the hell is that!”

A monster straight from the movies seemed to buck and writhe under the onslaught. Then it seized a chopper with a tentacle-like arm and hurled it into the other. Both exploded and crashed into a tenement block setting it ablaze.

A numbness descended over me. I felt drool pooling in my mouth as stared frozen at the apocalyptic nightmare playing out in the city.

A missile hissed through the sky and detonated. I saw the creature fall into a cloud of boiling flames. A nearby building exploded and the monster rose with a military jeep in hand. It sent it arcing straight toward me.  

It was time to leave!

I climbed out of my living room and fell into the dark hall through a hole in the wall.

The jeep hit the building like an earthquake. An explosion of fire ripped the upper floor apart.

Fiery debris fell around me, as I pitched into a wall and staggered toward the exit. Was it still open? I prayed it was.

The lights flickered.

A body hung in a gaping hole in the wall.

“Agnes!” she was my elderly neighbour. I supported her childlike weight and checked her pulse. Nothing. “I’m so sorry,” I felt tears washing away the dust and blood covering my face as I lay her on the ground and dropped to my knees beside her.

Not once did the staccato racket of machine gun fire fall silent.

With a heavy heart, I regained my feet and entered the stairwell. I fell more than walked down the three flights.

The foyer imitated a smoky warzone. Fires raged in the seating area. A car was buried in the front desk. Then I saw him.

“Gary!”

He was the building’s janitor. He was a Downs Syndrome sufferer with a big heart and work ethic to match. The building always gleamed when he was finished.

“Gary!”

He lay close to the front door amid a pile of rubble and carnage. Another body lay broken not far away. I knew the car had crushed him as it smashed into the building. My knees buckled as I reached and shook him.

He opened a swollen eye and smiled, “I saw Godzilla. He …” Gary slumped again.

“Gary, wake up!”

“I – I’m here. He’s real …”

“Good Whatever that thing is, it…”

His eyes rolled, he convulsed, blood oozed from his mouth and he was gone.

“Gary! No Gary come on!” I yelled. It was no use, he was dead in my arms.  “Damn it!”

Unable to control my tears again, I staggered over the broken glass and rubble that remained of the entrance doors and made it outside.

I was in time to see a soldier flying through the air. He was screaming until his body cracked onto a car bonnet and disappeared through the windscreen.

The monster let out a hideous scream.

My world flashed to nothing as the loudest roar I ever heard ended the city in a cataclysmic, mushrooming explosion.

Everything was white, serene and calm. This was what it felt like to die in a nuclear blast.

Wait something was ringing in my ears.

I was too hot, I shook myself and jolted upright. Immediately I fell to the floor. I swore and stood. I was wearing the grey shirt and trousers I wore for the office’s annual Easter movie trip. I was clean and healthy, aside from a headache too. Why was I on that gurney?

“Woah, take it easy, mate,” said a man wearing a black shirt with white accents coming toward me.

I didn’t recognise him.

“We’re alright,” he added, face full of emotion.

“That’s a relief,” I managed before he was hugging me for all he was worth.

I’d never been a hugger, but this one was the best I’d ever felt. It was welcome in ways I couldn’t express. I hugged back with relief pouring from me, “Thank you. What happened? I saw the city being destroyed by a monster I …”

“Cloverfield.” He released me.

“What?” I remembered watching the movie moments before the city —

“Some practical joker decided to spike our drinks with magic mushroom powder and sleeping pills while we watched Cloverfield.”

I found myself gasping for air. “It was a dream?”

The man smiled and hugged me again. “Just a dream, you’re going to be just fine.”

“Thank goodness,” I took a deep breath. “That practical joker won’t be fine if I catch him. He’ll look like he met a monster too!”

We both laughed as we left the cinema as friends.

The End

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Thanks for reading my friends.

There’s more in the Poetry Corner, Poetry Nook, and the Short Story Collection

Have a great day!