Apocalyptic and Dystopian Tales

by Matthew Novak

  Silently, he propelled himself to the portcullis. Bracing himself, he slid it open. Derek couldn’t believe his eyes. The ship was orbiting a blue-green planet. He noticed that, as he let go, he drifted towards the front of the ship. It was decelerating! What was this planet that had trapped him into its orbit? In all these years, the ship had never passed anything close enough for that!

  He looked at the planet with wonder and then with dread. He would now age. He would be trapped here, circling, circling until he died. Derek sighed.

  A startling crackle came from the console. He floated over to it. Could someone on the planet be trying to contact his ship?

  Then, suddenly, a wave of telekinetic energy hit him. He released the console and again drifted to the front of the ship. Words had come with the energy.

  “Alien creature, why have you traveled through our domain, disturbing everything in your path with that machine?”

  His eyes grew wide. Derek had no response. He propelled himself to the window again. There, incredibly close, was a huge, black ship. Derek had never seen anything like it.

  “We have been chasing you for over 100 years. You have caused much trouble.” There was silence for a few moments; then the telepathic voice came again. “We find the planet below has suitable atmosphere and habitat for your life form. Since you have no explanation for your actions, you will remain on this planet. If we find you in space again, you will be terminated.”

  ***

  She watched him intently from where she was crouching in the tall, dry grass, golden in the autumn. It hid her well, her skin tone being the same color. What is that strange creature? Its clothes – they’re so different - what animal or plant is colored like that? His outfit reflected the sun’s rays into her eyes. What was the creature that left this man here? For a man, she could now see, he surely was. Perhaps a dragon that breathed fire in that manner? A light breeze rustled the grass and made her jump. What a curious way he had come! Yet, just sitting there, he didn’t seem dangerous.

  She knew she could run fast. Gaza could outrun all of the girls from the village and most of the men too. So she stood and let herself be seen.

  He was startled, his blue eyes wild and crazed-looking. The man called out to her in a strange tongue.

  For a moment, he said nothing more. He couldn’t believe what he saw! A woman? Here?! What was this place, with the deep blue sky dotted with fluffy white clouds? Then he called to her again. The gravity would not release him to stand. He was like an iron filing on a magnet. Gaza cautiously approached. When she reached the man, she tentatively put out her hand towards him. When he made no threatening motion and only continued to stare, she gently touched his face. He was human and mortal - what other evidence did she need? Cast out of her own tribe for refusing the chief’s cruel son, she had been away from people too long.

  Gaza carefully helped him to stand. The man was very weak. She touched the garment that he wore. It was smooth and thin. It looked like fish scales but it was neither cold nor wet. The man leaned on her gratefully as she helped him back to her simple hut.

  Derek loved the woman and made his home with her. They rarely saw other people and then only to trade for goods. Slowly he learned her language and what he needed to know to survive.

  Many years later, when Derek and Gaza had had seven children together, his family was forced to move. Their area was flooding. They traveled a long way, looking for a new place to live. On the journey, they came across the ruins of a great city.

  Derek studied all he saw, including some plastic signs that had deteriorated very little over the years. He came to the conclusion that he had truly come home. This was Earth. The universe must run in a circle. Derek wondered what had happened to Earth but he did not dwell on the question. He had what he had sought for so long. Happiness and oneness.

  He tried to teach his children and later his grandchildren of ‘the time before’ and of his life in space. They listened intently but they laughed at his wild tales, for they knew that such things could never have been. He let them laugh because his heart knew the truth. Technology had brought him only darkness. Love had brought him life.

  World War Four

  They called it World War Four. That’s what they called it. But, at this point, most people were smart enough to realize that it was the end of the world. The car jarred on the uneven, gravel road. They left a dust trail behind them that could betray their presence on this side road, in the middle of nowhere. Jennie hoped the gray dust might not be too visible against the ash gray sky. She tried not to travel during the day. But, then, so did they, so maybe no one would notice the car. That and the fact that this road led through a forest…maybe not too many of them were around. They tended to stay near the ruined cities.

  They hit another pothole. “Be careful, Jennie!” said her brother, Tim. “Don’t break the car!”

  “I’m seventeen. You’re fourteen,” she retorted. “I know how to drive.”

  It didn’t matter. They would run out of gas sooner or later and there was no more to be had. The thwap, thwap, thwap of bug guts splattering on the windshield startled her.

  “Eww…” said Tim. “You drove into a flock of butterflies.”

  Jennie said nothing. She was surprised to see such creatures alive after all that had happened. Their house in the country had been well outside the blast zones, when all the major cities had been leveled by nuclear strikes. Then starvation and looting had swept across the land. They’d been able to hide from the crazed and starving masses. They had grown up in the bush and could find food well enough. But then came the mark. People who took the mark …changed. That’s when she had lost her parents. Jennie shook her head. It wouldn’t do to dwell on such things.

  Before long, the steel gray sky grew darker.

  “Turn on the headlights?” she asked Tim, finally. “Or ditch the car?”

  “Headlights. How much gas do we have?”

  Jennie flipped on the lights and squinted at the gauge. “A little.”

  “Enough to last till morning?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe. If we don’t go too fast.” It was an economy car. But Jennie was pretty sure they didn’t have enough fuel to last the night.

  Inky blackness surrounded them, except in the bright glow of the headlights. She glanced at Tim. He was turned in his seat, looking back.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Maybe you’d rather not know,” he replied.

  “I’d rather know.”

  “I think they’re back there. I think they’re running after the car.”

  Jennie didn’t dare look. Of course they were. They were everywhere. It was only a matter of time now…but she would remain faithful until the end. The darkness would not seduce her. They would have to kill her because she would never join them.

  The car shuddered beneath them.

  “What was that?” asked Tim.

  It shuddered again and slowed.

  “Are we out of gas already?”

  “No, there must be something else wrong with the car,” replied Jennie. “How many of them? How far back?” The car slowed more. Maybe it was the alternator. Jennie didn’t know much about cars. Not that she could have fixed it anyway with that horde after them.

  “I don’t know. Maybe lots. But maybe not that close, we were going pretty fast.”

  “We’ve got to bail. We’re better off on foot now the car’s broken down.”

  Tim nodded, grabbed a cape from the back seat, and shoved it at her.

  “Here’s the plan, Sis. You hide. I’ll run.”

  “No!” she objected. “I’m older. We should stay together or I should run.”

  “We don’t have time for this. I was on the track team. We both know I’m the faster runner.”

  The car lurched and crawled to a stop.

  “But even if we both survive, we’ll never find each other again!” Jennie cried.

  Tim flung open the passenger door. Their eyes lo
cked for a moment. “Then I’ll see you on the other side,” he said. The door slammed. Tim was gone, running down the road in the direction the car had been headed, into darkness.

  Jennie jumped out the driver side door and dove into the bush on the side of the road. She hid herself under the cape in the dense brush. Only moments later, the horde rushed by.

  In her mind, she heard her parents screaming again. She and Tim had been high up in a tree, hidden by the dense foliage when they had caught her parents. Dad had only cried out once. He got a quick death. But her mother’s screaming had been terrible, going on and on. But Mom had never given in. Never renounced the faith. Jennie had covered Tim’s hand with her own and closed her eyes. There was nothing they could have done. Mom and Dad would have wanted them to stay hidden.

  Jennie brought her mind back to the present. She listened and prayed that Tim would escape. But he was right. They would all be together on the other side.

  A shrill scream echoed in the distance. Tim! Tears filled her eyes. He screamed again. Tears poured down her cheeks.

  Suddenly, a bright light filled the sky. A helicopter? But it couldn’t be an aircraft as there had been no sound. Her eyes watered from the intensity and she couldn’t make out what it was.

  A cloud was coming down and a figure stood on it. A man? But then - Jennie understood. He was the source of the light. Tears continued to flow. She had endured long enough. Now He would make all things right. She heard a long trumpet blast and Jennie felt herself rising up off the ground. As she rose, fatigue, pain, and fear dropped away. All things made new! She soared up to meet Him. Soon she would be with her family again. And she would look upon His face forever more.

  Research

  The sun was bright in the sky as Julie drove to work. Julie loved her job. She loved her co-workers. The pay was unmatched anywhere on Earth. Edward Industry Inc. was one of the most lucrative companies on the planet. And Julie was working on a top-secret project for Mr. Edwards. It really was the best job in the world! She turned in at the medium-sized, one floor, brown brick structure. Julie parked her car at the far side of the small parking lot, farthest from the building, as she always did. Walking from her car to the building was the only exercise her job afforded her. There were already two other cars there. Darcy and Miranda had beaten her to work again. She chuckled to herself. Julie was a little more than half an hour early. She wondered how long the other women had already been working. Miranda was a short, Asian woman in her early forties and Darcy was a young, freckled brunette from Texas. They were the most diligent people with whom Julie had ever worked.

  Julie checked her make-up in the mirror. Everything looked good. The eyeliner she had chosen made her blue eyes stand out, and she thought her new, shorter hair cut really suited her straight, blond hair. She had to admit that part of the fun of coming to work early was flirting with the security guard.

  Julie stepped out of her small, economy car and reached back to grab her purse. As she swung her door closed, a sonic boom tore the sky above her. White fire rained down. Julie cried out in terror. She ran for the building. Wherever the white-hot light touched down, the ground was left deformed and blackened. Julie willed her legs faster as she ran, thankful that she had chosen to wear flats that day. Only a grassy lawn separated her from the building now. Heavy sounds ripped the sky as the fire continued to fall. Julie skidded to a stop as a fireball exploded in front of her. She quickly picked her way around the large, burn-marred area. At the building, Michael, the security guard, was holding the door open for her, fear written plainly on his face. As she made the door, Julie spared a glance backward. Her worst fear was confirmed. This was no natural disaster. The ships of the visitors had returned and were firing on the planet.

  Michael yanked the door closed and ran with her, deeper into the building.

  “Come down with me,” Julie gasped, as she flung herself into the waiting elevator. “We’ll be safe there.” The elevator shaft led to Edward’s top-secret research lab, over 100 feet underground. Edward had built it as a blast and fallout shelter, just in case. There was a living area stocked with enough food and bottled water to preserve a small group of people until the crisis was over.

  “I have orders,” said Michael. “In the case of a national or worldwide emergency, I am to wait here for Edward’s arrival.”

  “But what if he doesn’t come?” Julie’s finger was poised over the elevator button. “Or what if Mr. Edward gets here too late? The Aliens…You saw what was happening. They’ll reduce this whole building to smoldering rubble.”

  “Go.” Michael’s hand brushed past hers as he pressed the elevator button. Then he stepped out into the hall. “I’ll wait here for Mr. Edward.”

  They looked at each other as the doors slowly closed. Then he was gone. The elevator started moving downwards. Michael. Surely he would come down before it was too late. Julie felt a tremor as the elevator continued its downward progress.

  The elevator and the underground facility were powered by a self-contained fuel cell, the type used in commercial spacecraft. The facility was ‘off the grid’, so to speak. The fuel cell was capable of providing electricity for fifty years or more. That way, they wouldn’t have to worry about a local power outage. There were also stairs, of course, just in case. Water for the lab was from a well, a deep aquifer. They were completely self-sufficient. Nothing could harm them down here. Not a nuclear disaster…or the alien ships.

  The elevator reached the bottom and the door slid open. Miranda and Darcy were waiting in the hall, both with tears in their eyes.

  “What?” asked Julie.

  “We were watching the video feed,” explained Darcy. “The building topside has been completely destroyed.”

  Miranda pulled Julie into an unexpected embrace. “We didn’t know if you survived. The video feed cut just after the elevator doors closed. Then we switched to the camera in the parking lot. The building was flattened, Julie. No one else will be coming down any time soon.”

  “Poor Michael,” whispered Darcy, as she joined in the group hug.

  Julie could hardly process the news. Her family. Michael. The whole world. Who could survive such an attack? Although she saw the small rivers making their way down Darcy’s cheeks, her own tear ducts seemed empty. The shock was too great. Would the aliens decimate the entire planet? And why?

  “Come on,” said Miranda, pulling away. “Let’s get into the bunker. We’ll see if there’s anything left of our video surveillance system or if we can get anything on the local news channels.”

  The women walked down the short tunnel and took the 90 ° turn to enter the bunker. Julie detached herself from Darcy and helped Miranda close the thousand pound blast door, shutting out the destruction.

  Miranda tried all the security feeds. No video came through. Then she tried the radio and then the TV stations. Nothing.

  “What should we do?” asked Darcy.

  “We keep working,” said Miranda.

  Julie nodded. The genetic research on age cessation and cell rejuvenation would continue. They would discover the proverbial fountain of youth. Then…no matter what happened on the surface, the human race would never become extinct.

  White

  I remembered when snow was white. And nice white sheets. And clouds…yeah, they used to be white too. But, now, all was grey and black. The white-yellow sun, once too bright to look at, had faded to a small wine-colored disk in the sky. I struggled to make my way back to the farmhouse. Grey ash covered the ground two feet deep. Some people had predicted a nuclear winter but the heat was scorching. I wiped perspiration from my brow. There was still food to be had though, if you knew where to look. But it was likely all contaminated anyway…I pushed the thought aside. We would be thankful to God for what we did have. Gaining the porch, I pounded on the old, solid wood door and heard a scuffling inside. A small face peered down at me from a window above the door. The deadbolt slid aside. I hurried in, closed the door, and
slid the lock back into place. Then I showed the treasures to the children. An ice cream pail full of dried raspberries and three large brown eggs. The three children clapped their hands in delight. I looked up into the faded blue eyes of my mother. Concern.

  “It will be enough to fill our bellies for tonight,” I reassured. It might be true. But if not, I would go hungry to see that the children had their fill.

  “We listened to the radio while you were gone,” said Mother.

  “Oh?” I asked casually, inwardly dreading what she had heard.

  “They made the announcement. We’re all to be executed. All who have not taken the mark. Even those at the boarding school.”

  The little children continued to give each other high fives, as though they had not heard.

  “We live a long way out,” I said. “Perhaps they won’t find us.”

  She said no more but I knew what needed to be done. I couldn’t let all the children at the boarding school die. But how could I rescue such a large group? They had no adults amongst them so we would have to care for them all. How could we support so many?

  I left those questions to the Lord and the food preparation to my mother. Taking a long draught of well water soothed my parched throat. If I were to have any chance at all, I would have to go now. I took a crowbar from the shelf above the closet.

  Outside, in the bush behind the farmhouse, I saddled my large back mare, Hope. There were few horses left, even fewer than people, but the old gal survived by eating the bark from trees. Hope made soft sounds in greeting. We would ride, at least one last time. With the ease that comes from practice, I stepped up into the stirrup and settled into the saddle. I rode full out towards the town, staying clear of the highway. Dark, black billows filled the grey sky. When I reached the school, I saw an angry crowd facing the main doors that were boarded closed. Flames already consumed the old, wooden structure. I rode around back and assessed the situation. The cries of children came from one of the lower windows. Quickly I dismounted. Gripping the crowbar with both hands, I struck the window, showering the children inside with shards of glass. But they were ok.