1 Capter One

When the apocalypse comes, where do you want to be? Who do you want to be next to?

I'm going to take a wild guess here and say that you wouldn't want to be at work. During the morning shift, at the horrific hour of eight a.m. That you wouldn't want to see the giant objects approaching the earth, right after opening the doors. Of course, I had to notice them after I let people into the store. Customers that didn't see the objects hurtling toward Earth. Knowing that I would have the worst job of telling my manager that customers needed to leave the store. 

I found John talking to Skyler about something. "Hey, John, the world's ending!" I half whispered, walking up to him. My mouth hung agape because of the apocalyptic event about to happen. Skyler wouldn't give me or anyone privacy to talk to John. Not that I would have blamed them for that this time. This is a life and death scenario. One so crazy that everyone had thought about it happening at least once to pass the time.

"Noa, what are you talking about?" John asked, turning around. After I repeated myself, he took a breath. My hands shook as I spoke, my chest filling with anxiety. The tingling at the back of my throat spoke of throwing up.

"Noa, are you okay? I know times are tough for you right now, but could you not take so much?" Skyler snickered. 

Things with Skyler were always tough after they were hired. Skyler is known for being the Johns favorite. People had the idea that John liked the young, slim, feminine presenting person. Skyler would stand around on their phone while ignoring customers. Even if a customer went up and asked them a question, they would give them the same two answers; 'That's on aisle 4' or 'We don't have that in stock right now' before going back to being on their phone. They chose the aisle the furthest from themselves. 

Skyler adored to gossip about other coworkers, causing several seasonal employees to quit before the end of the season. While gossip isn't unusual at any job, the crude comments that Skyler made were the problem. The worse one happened when a new hire quit on their first day because of Skyler. Skyler tormented me the most after a few weeks of me not reacting to them. Growing up with a golden child, my older brother, backhanded insults weren't anything new to me. Because of that I was used to them and could see them coming from a mile away.

"No, you're not listening. There is an actual emergency happening right now," I said, looking at Skyler, before looking back at John. The anger at Skyler's insinuation caused my anxiety to be shoved to the back of my mind. "You need to make an announcement." I continued. I didn't want to scare anyone, but the customers should go home. They should be with their family and friends while they still could.

"Noa-" John started, leaning in to whisper, "-Have you taken something? I understand that sometimes it's hard, but if you're having a bad trip, I can get you some water," He said with a soft smile on his face. I know John, I've been working here for years. His voice contained genuine concern for me. That knowledge made the comment worse. It stung, while the voice in my head yelled 'that he believed them over me'. 

"Excuse me?" I hissed, my jaw clenching. He had to take it back. There was no way that he was saying this. 

"Noa, there's no need to be upset. You're young, and kids like you make stupid mistakes," Skyler smirks at me from behind John's shoulder. Skyler's four years younger than I am. I looked between them and John, waiting for him to say something for a moment. As my gaze flickered between the two, I saw the smirk on Skyler's face melt into a full smile. John didn't comment or acknowledge what Skyler said.

I took a breath so that I wouldn't end up hitting them. "John, there is a giant… thing falling out of the sky and you can't pay me enough to stay here when it hits," I said, gesturing with my right hand. Ignoring Skyler as I talked to John. I could feel my jaw trying to lock in anger. There's no hiding that Skyler's proud of the outcome. I would not give them the honor of my attention.

I turned to walk out of there when John called out, "Noa, if you leave, I will have to consider you quitting. Why don't you take your break and come back to work?" But he didn't follow me. I felt my skin itch in irritation from being ignored and insulted. I wanted to punch something or scream at Skyler about everything they did. To tell John all about the person he's precious, little Skyler is.

I got to my car and took a glance up at the things about to hit Earth. They were still there. I got in my car and turned on my playlist, 'villainous bitch', which held all the songs I needed for the anger I felt. Songs like 'Angry too' by Lola Blanc, fast with a deep beat that matched my heart's pounding. When I got into my car, I saw the customers leaving the store in a hurry, along with John and Skyler. It looked like they finally saw what I did. I watched for a moment as Skyler got into the same car as John and laughed a little. The rumors were right about him having favorites for 'special' reasons. Part of me felt satisfied with the fact that Skyler was anything but special.

I turned my focus to my life. What am I going to do now? What could I do? I'm gonna drive to my apartment. It would take four hours to get to my parent's home. If they even welcomed me there. If I showed up on my own without that invite I know they would shoot. I turned up the volume on my phone, waiting to hear it ring. Family forgives in life-or-death situations, right? Because it's possible that you won't have another chance again. I waited, hoping to hear it ring. Hoping that they would say that they weren't bigoted idiots anymore. That they missed me and they were sorry. That I could come home and wait out the end of the world with them. 

I drove lost in my head while fighting traffic to get home. Everyone hurried and headed home, not caring to stay at work, school, or otherwise. When traffic stopped for short periods at a time, I would either move my hands together to rest on the top of the wheel, or rub my hands. Started from the right bottom corner and moved it up to between my middle and pointer fingers. My nerves felt abused by the interaction with John and Skyler. That didn't work during the longer stops. I would run my fingers through my shaggy brown hair. Tempting to tame it into different styles. Annoyed at the way it fell below my chin, tickling my neck. I looked to see if I had anything to hold it back. To hold the styles that I chose for longer. Not that it worked, as I only kept a single hair tie from when my hair reached my elbows.

While I regretted even getting on the freeway to get to my apartment instead of the long way. Which at that point would have probably been shorter. My hands hurt from the almost compulsive massages I gave them. I kept pressing way too hard on my palms, turning the calming action into that of pain. There's one more off-ramp away from my apartment. I stared more at my phone between me and that off-ramp. If it made any kind of notice that my parents or family tried contacting me, I would stay on the freeway. They didn't, and I began pulling off the freeway with a heavy heart. The playlist no longer matched my mood, so I turned off the music and drove the last five minutes in silence.

When I got to my apartment, I realized even if we all died, they wouldn't call me. Their son, whom they raised and loved all those years, later hated simply because he's …gay. Taking a breath, I looked at the giant objects that had our names on it. I could still see it falling to earth. They were closer than before, but still looked far off. Though the way it crept toward the Earth terrified me. It took its time tormenting us. We could do nothing to stop it. I thought that extinction would be quick, that would put us out of our misery without pain or worry. That I won't have the time to think about it.

Walking into my apartment complex, I could tell that most people weren't there. Probably gone home to their parents or friends. I stood there alone, wish I could say I'm used to it. I've been alone since I was 17. I skipped every other step as I made my way up to my apartment. When I finally made it to the third floor. I opened my door and called out, "I'm home". It's a tradition I picked up from anime. Sure, no one's home and I'm not Asian. The greeting made it easier to open the door on the bad days. I didn't need to turn on any lights when I walked in. The apartment is lit by the sun through the windows, as it is only a little past noon when I got home. I liked the way the sun filtered in to bounce off the plants I have around the apartment. Cursing, a green hue bounces around the room. Though something about how warm it looked felt off in this hour of dread. Closing the door, I set my things down, now wishing I owned a cat or fish to comfort me. I worked two jobs and would take any calls that I could get, causing me to be gone most of the week with only a couple of hours at home. I didn't want to get a pet because I wouldn't have the time to take care of them. I could hear the disaster alarm coming to life.

-Wraaaah Wrraaaahhh-

The blaring sound made my skin crawl and settled in how scary things were getting. That everything that happened is real. I hadn't lost my mind, not yet anyway. I could feel my stomach twist with anxiousness. My right hand returned to bully my left with more pressure massages. I flinched when my thumb pressed too hard and dragged me back to the present. I looked at my hands to see them shaking with fear.

"It's okay, I need to close the blinds and watch something," I said, trying to not look out the window when closing the blinds. I didn't want to see what would cause the alarms to go off now. Were they that close? I turned around and couldn't see anything in front of me. It fogged my mind with worries about what things happening. Should I have stopped at the store? Could I have even gotten close to it before they were empty? Taking a breath, I tried to focus on finding the remote. I needed to watch the news first, to find out what was happening. From the different angles of the object, people could see that it looked like a wooden spear. There were plenty of channels talking about the spears getting closer to Earth. There is an astronomical amount of people talking about different apocalyptic events that this could be. Some said that portals would open and we would get to meet elves, dragons, and dwarfs. There were people talking about how there were going to be monsters that rip open our bodies and fest on our bones. I flipped away from those people.

The situation of the unknown prompted many cosplayers and other people who thought 'Their time to shine' to go outside waiting for the monsters, or other beings. Some channels were nothing but religious prayer. Along with some radicals saying 'god is punishing the sinners and they would survive this.' which I promptly ignored. I didn't want to fall in line with those people. I viewed both as extremest that would end up getting hurt the most.

By the time I found a channel with any actual information, I became pretty calm about the situation. This couldn't be worse than the religious radicals' theories, or the crazed enthusiasm of some. Scientists and mathematicians have come together all over the world to find out what they can about them. Spears are appearing all around the world. There are 20 spears approaching the earth. Though some of them have slowed or stopped at certain points in the atmosphere. The first response to them approaching was to send missiles. When the missiles got close, they would 'lose' the target shutting down. This caused them to be flung into nearby areas. Destroying homes and land as they free fell through the air.They had used drones to get as close to the spears as they could to take photos. Now we could see the rough surface. I couldn't make out all the details, but it reminded me of looking at the ruins of an old civilization. They found they had what looked like a spiral staircase along the side of a few spears. They have yet to find out what that rock they were made of. Anytime the drones tried to get close to the spears, they would either have an electrical malfunction or get pulled into the spear. Either way, they would crash shortly after. They worked to find the perimeter of the spears in the meantime. I believe they were trying to keep them self's busy. That they were terrified that the spears killing everyone. The average of the spears fell about 5,215 which is roughly running around a football field 5 times. So they weren't as large as one would think looking at them. Though there's an outlier that is roughly 6 times bigger. Though that one had come to a halt outside our atmosphere and is currently joining the satellites in the rotating earth. It's a mystery how the satellites weren't being pulled into its orbit. Being honest here. I stopped listening to the math that they were talking about and thinking about the conclusive answers. I began wondering if I could find anything else other than the 'spears' about to kill us all when they land.

I grabbed my phone from my pocket and ignored the sting of pain after seeing that no one messaged me. Part of me wants to message them first, but I knew they wouldn't be able to see it. I know that my family blocked me so I wouldn't be able to contact them. That happened after I kept calling them, hoping they would change their minds. Not even sure if I wanted to talk to them after all this time. In the 'right' mind, I would say that I'm scared and alone. I wanted to hide in my parent's arms. To be back when failing a class is the scariest thing I could deal with.

-Chhh-

The sound caused me to jump. How I heard it over the screaming alarm outside, I didn't know. I looked around the studio apartment. There is no difference in the apartment. I didn't want to be the ' white guy in a horror movie' so I ignored it, and went to get the soju I kept in the fridge. Making sure that the front door's locked on the way over. I had to order soju a while ago for a friend that never showed up. I thought it should be enough to get drunk on. By the time I finished half of the first bottle, I felt tipsy and, by the end of the second one, I didn't have any worries. In hindsight, I should have eaten something before drinking. I'm enjoying watching my childhood comfort movie "Mooka" repeated every line before passing out.

The next morning, my alarm startled me out of my drunken sleep. I forgot to turn it off. The alarm is screaming at me. It is time to go to work. My head ached and my throat hurt. I vaguely remember belting out the songs and dialogue before passing out. I looked at my phone to see what I had missed. After a quick 'news' search, I found multiple breaking new bulletin posts. Each is as unbelievable as the next, along with a text from the Government stating that 'if a family member entered the tower that to call the number they provided'. I blinked, thinking about where you could even find a door to enter those spear-looking things. Can't believe that someone went into the towers. I watched all the videos of people laughing as they entered the towers from all over the world. The smiles on their faces made me worried about them.

At 6:15 pm- This just in: ten of the spears have made landfall, while the others have stopped altogether. Scientists believe that the other ten will not be making landfall for a long time, if they do at all. However, they have remained quiet about how they stayed suspended in the air.

At 6:32 pm- This is just in: A screen appears to have popped up after the spears made landfall. They appear to have information about yourself and 'skills'. People are calling them a 'status screen' …

At 7:05 pm- This is just in: A large group of people, upon seeing the status screen, have run thru the doors of the spears. Some said they would "stream themselves kicking the tower's butt like an op MC" before disappearing. We believe that this is about video games. This group contains people from all over the world. So far, 100 people and counting have entered the 'towers'. Governments around the world are now guarding the entrance to the 'towers', and ask that people 'not get close to them'.

My jaw hung open as I saw the new reports. I scoured the internet to find the written reports, reading and rereading the news reports. I gave opening my status a try. With some giddy feelings about having a skill that's uniquely mine. "STATUS!" I couldn't hold back my yell. The excitement that my life might change with this. The screen didn't appear in front as I thought. My face burned as I regretted yelling out the word. I barely muttered "How do I open- "before the screen appeared. Bright green letters said "Keyword 'open' active" before changing to show my screen.