by J Deleon
Before Life spread across the worlds, before Death reaped those lives, and before Time watched it all happen, a child was born.
THE DESTINY SERIES PRESENTS:
DESTINY, AND THE RED ORB
Written By: J. L. Deleon
Cover By: Jon Evan Moore
Chapter 1:
The End of the World
Adam
“Interesting weather we’re having, isn’t it?” The store clerk pointed out as he rang up Adam’s total. “I’ve never seen anything like this.” The old clerk looked out through the window. “It’s so gray out there. Kind of hard to see, isn’t it? One dollar and eight cents.”
Adam laid the money on the counter. “I suppose it is.” He turned to look as well.
The clerk scooped up the money and put it in the cash register. “Did you hear about all of those tornadoes and earthquakes that’ve been happening everywhere? Kind of strange, isn’t it? Ninety-two cents is your change.” He placed the change into Adam’s hand.
Adam put the change into his pocket and grabbed his drink from the counter. “It certainly is. Have a good day, sir.”
“And you too, my boy. Stay safe.” The old clerk waved as Adam exited the convenient store.
Things had been acting strange the past few days. Adam had first noticed just two days ago when the sun was blocked by the gray he saw now. There hadn’t been a shine of sunlight since. The nights were colder, and the sky somehow seemed darker. When he would look up into the night sky, he would question if he actually saw hints of purple in the sea of darkness above him. Just yesterday, a whole selection of natural disasters started occurring, but they had started as early as last week in other places all around the world. It was all over the news for the whole day. Even on this day, Adam woke up to the news reporting about a massive tsunami just off the sea in California.
Adam opened his beverage and took a sip. He stood outside, staring at the sky. He stared and squinted his eyes, focusing on a single dot. It was a red speck, too far for him to make out, but he watched it tentatively as he took another sip.
The red dot grew larger the longer he stared at it. It came to the point where he didn’t need to squint in order to see it. By the time he took his third sip, the red dot was now distinguishable. It looked, to him, like a comet hurdling towards earth. As it grew in size, he noticed fire surrounding it. It was traveling faster and faster the closer it got.
Adam heard people start to scream and run around him. Everybody was now noticing the falling comet. Adam didn’t move until he noticed where it was heading—towards the city.
The can hit the ground, spilling his drink onto the pavement. Adam didn’t take notice in this, however. He ran down the street along with all of the other people. They packed up and slowed down as passing cars were forced to stop. Everybody was in a frantic now. Adam needed to find a way out of all the havoc, but by the time he maneuvered his way into an alley, it was too late.
The comet had hit nearby, blowing him back onto a dumpster. A crater was formed not too far away. The trees were engulfed in fire and the ground began to break.
Cecily
“I’m sorry, I have to go. Something’s happening.” Cecily spoke to her phone as she covered her other ear. “No, for real this time.” The constant honking and people scurrying around made it harder to listen to her mother who had been worrying about her. There was too much going on in the world at the moment for her mother not to be worrying. Cecily had just moved into the big city for college—it was the farthest she had ever been from home. Now, everything seemed to be going wrong in the world. She understood why her mother had been calling her nonstop the past few days.
“Okay, just be careful.” The voice on the phone told her worriedly.
“I will, mom. Don’t worry about me. I have to go, bye.” Cecily hung up her phone and slid it into her pocket. The cars were now stopping as people flooded the streets.
“What now?” Cecily tried to peek over the crowd.
There was a road block just ahead of her. Police were surrounding the intersections, preventing any cars from going on. People were shouting and raising their fists at them, but the police didn’t seem to mind.
Cecily got off of her raised toes and looked around. Things had been hectic the past few days, especially in a city this large, but nothing like this. The people were everywhere, trying to find a way out. Cecily noticed the fear in their faces. None of them seemed like they wanted to stay.
Cecily didn’t think much about the odd disasters of the past few days; she had spent all of her time focusing on her school work, but today, she knew something horrible was happening. She looked up at the unusually gray sky and saw, what looked like, falling stars. They were bright red and all seemingly heading towards the city.
Panic quickly overcame her once she realized that they were going to crash down. She stared at the sky as she tried to make her way out of the crowd.
Once she made it out, she started down the road opposite from the crowd. She ran as fast as she could as the falling stars began to hit. They blew dust and wind at her, but she continued to run away. The loud crashing was then accompanied by the screams of the masses. She flustered as she tried to find safety. Then suddenly, before she could even question it, she fell onto her knees, hard. She shut her eyes and covered her ears. A blinding bright light shined onto her eyelids and a piercing screech pelted her ears. Cecily screamed at the top of her lungs, but she could only hear the noise of the fading screech and see the bright light slowly dim.
The moment she opened her eyes, she saw the streets start to cave in, creating massive holes in the ground. People, still disoriented by the light and sound, fell to their demise. Buildings began to tumble onto each other. Glass flew over the sidewalks and cars began to crash all over.
Cecily stood back up and began to run. She sprinted for a few blocks until the earth began to shake. It was an earthquake that she had found herself in. She fell over as the earthquake broke the road and shifted the ground at an angle. She quickly took off her jacket and wrapped it around a nearby lamp post. The road she was on was now at an angle with her half way down. She held onto her jacket for dear life. The people around her plummeted down the slope, breaking their body’s once they hit the bottom. One by one, bodies would slam into the bottom of the slope, crashing into the pile of cars that had garnered up.
Up above her, she heard a loud scream heading closer to her. There was a lady heading straight for her down the road. In an instant, Cecily reached out her hand and grabbed the lady.
Scott
The city was being evacuated, even before the comets started to hit earth. Scott just happened to be amongst the policeman in charge of the evacuation. The few of them were forced to handle the mass of the people. Scott urged them to calm down and stay in line, but everybody was in too much of a panic to do so. The people crowded up all around the exits, allowing no one to get through—everyone wanted to be the first ones out, but all hope was lost once the first comet struck the ground.
People were now dying around him. It wasn’t about getting them out of the city anymore, there was no escaping what was happening.
All around him, everything was falling apart.
The people started to run for their lives where they could go. Craters in the earth started to form as tornadoes were seen in the distance. Earthquakes were hitting the city like never before. The entire city began to fall under.
“What are you doing?” Scott shouted at the fellow police officers.
“We need to get out of here! We’re going to die!” One of them shouted back.
“What abo
ut the people?” Scott snapped.
“We need to live too!” The police officer started the vehicle and drove away.
“Dammit!” Scott watched as the others followed suit.
Scott took one last look around before entering his own vehicle to drive off. He turned on his speaker and began to give out orders. “Everyone, find shelter. Get off the streets and find shelter. I repeat: get off the streets and find shelter.” None of the people seemed to listen to him, however.
Scott was forced to stop his vehicle once it became surrounded by scared civilians. He continued to scream into his speaker, but they all continued running.
Jennifer
Jennifer opened her eyes. Her ears were ringing from the ground shaking, screaming voices, and the sound of impossibly loud screeches around her. She felt the cement of the sidewalk burning her palms as she tried to sit up; except, people running beside her kept knocking her back down. It took a moment for her to finally get back on her feet. It was then when she was finally able to get a good look around her.
There was fire covering the hills in the distance, smoke blocking out the daylight, large cracks separating the ground, buildings collapsing in front of her eyes, and death everywhere. Her ear was bleeding, and the ringing in it grew loud enough to block out all of the havoc. She leaned against the light pole that was near her and tried to gather her thoughts. All she could see was people running in all didfferent dircetions. There were people dying and being left behind to rot in the massive holes in the ground.
She held her ear to try and stop the bleeding, but her hand just became covered in the blood. She was looking at her blood-covered hand when, suddenly, she felt another sharp pain in her other ear and in her eyes. There was a blinding light accompanied by a sound even louder than the ringing. It caused her to shiver and crouch down; shielding herself from what may come. She closed her eyes shut until she felt the need to see if the blinding light was gone. It was fading away when she stood back up. The streets were now completely over run by people panicking and falling into the earth; and yet, Jennifer hadn’t moved since it started. Her eyes followed a seemingly small crack in the ground grow larger, wider, and move towards her. She instinctively ran out of the way, but was stopped by the wall of the building she was walking by. The people running past her now fell into the open hole and screamed as they tried to climb their way back out. She heard the now faint cries for help down into the bottomless pit, but she knew they were done for.
The ground began to shake again, causing her to lose her balance. It felt like the earth had just been tilted to an angle, propelling her down the side walk. She grabbed another pole as she slid down and stopped herself, but the others around her could only claw at the road as they were swallowed into the earth. She held in her scream in an effort to keep herself leveled. She had no idea what was occurring, but it scared her in a way that she had never been before. To her, she was watching the earth and all of humanity end right in front of her eyes. To her, all she could do was try and fight back.
She pulled herself onto the pole and gazed upon the falling state of humanity. The whole vicinity of where she was had been disrupted and shifted by the massive earthquake. To her right, she could see the rest of the street twenty feet below her. To her left, there was a slope a few blocks long. Both ways frightened her, but she knew she wasn’t going to get anywhere by staying there.
She slid back down to the sidewalk, got on her hands and knees, and tried to slowly slide down the road. A few feet down, the ground rumbled again causing her to lose her control and slide down at full speed. She reached and grabbed for anything she could find, but there was nothing to stop her. She finally screamed when she felt a hand grab her arm and her body suddenly stop. Somebody had saved her from falling any further. She opened her eyes and saw a young lady who was holding tightly onto a jacket that was wrapped around a light post asking if she was okay. Jennifer nodded and tried to reach her other hand up, but before she could, there was another blinding light and the same loud screech causing both of them to let go.
Jennifer shielded her eyes with one hand and reached for the girls hand with the other. The two joined hands once more as they zoomed down the sloped street. The ringing was in her ears, but the light had faded once more. Jennifer opened her eyes to the end of the street and a burning vehicle fast approaching.
“Look out!” Jennifer let go and steered to the left, avoiding the flames. She saw that the lady did the same. Once she saw the end of the road, she realized that she was heading into the abyss as well. There was a pile of cars at the bottom of it which looked like they were ten feet under the rest of the street. She closed her eyes as she prepared to collide into them.
The pain was quick, but lingered for a long while. She collided with the bodies that were left for dead. Her shoulder took most of the impact. It was enough to hurt her, but not enough to kill her.
She opened her eyes to see if she had any serious injuries. She held her shoulder and tried to stand up straight. She peered over the cars and saw the lady who saved her leaning on a body as well.
The lady noticed Jennifer. “Over here!” The voice was still overshadowed by the ringing.
Jennifer didn’t hesitate to start climbing over the cars to make her way over.
“We can get up from here!” The lady pointed to a stoplight that was bent down. She stood on top of the pile of cars underneath it, jumped, and grabbed a hold of it.
“Come on!” She climbed the pole.
Jennifer followed suit slowly, trying not to agitate her shoulder, and was able to make it out of the slope and onto leveled ground again. She looked around and saw the lady doing the same.
“Come with me.” Jennifer told her as she started down the road.
There were car crashes happening, people falling into the earth, and others trying to flee for their lives. In such a crowded city, it was hard enough to make her way through the street even without all of the chaos. It was complete anarchy in the streets now.
Jennifer maneuvered past the people and made it to an opening down the road.
“Over here!” She yelled over the screaming.
She started again, but was blown back by a powerful gust of wind. She fell to the ground along with everyone around her. She started to get back up when she saw something she couldn’t believe.
On the building next to her, there was a large hand, digging its scaly fingers into it. Just then, another blinding light with the screeching sound blocked her hearing and sight. Once she opened her eyes again, the hand had already retreated into the fading light.
“What the hell was that?” A man behind her asked.
A roar was heard in the distance.
“We need to go!” The lady pulled Jennifer up to her feet. Jennifer, however, was still in shock.
Jennifer ran down the street with the lady, following her down an alley until they were stopped by another blinding light along with the screeching.
“God, what is that?” The lady clamped her ears, but Jennifer could only hear the ringing.
Jennifer looked to the sky which was darker than the night and saw a number of falling balls of flame. They were large and hurdling towards the earth in high speeds.
“Oh my God.” Jennifer said under her breath in disbelief. She fell to her knees as she watched the falling flames head towards earth’s surface. There were bright lights coming from the sky as they fell, but the sound was too far to hurt them.
“This—” The lady was looking up as well. “This is not happening. It’s like the angels are falling.”
Soon, the falling flames were blocked by the buildings and loud crashes were heard all around continuously. The crashes echoed around them.
“Hey, we have to get out of here.” The lady told Jennifer.
Jennifer nodded, stood back up, and began to run. The two of them ran down the alley, avoiding flames, pedestrians, and the debris of the falling buildings. The falling balls of fire from the sky were colli
ding with the roads and buildings next to the two, causing their route to constantly change. One of the balls of flames landed on a vehicle close enough to them to nearly get hit by the flying pieces of metal. The force was strong enough to make a deep crater in the ground. They both ducked down and started to crouch until it was safe again.
The two made it down the street, but were stopped by the rumbling of the earth again. This time, however, the ground split underneath, knocking them in. Jennifer grabbed the ledge and the lady’s hand before she could fall too far in. Jennifer didn’t know what to do at this point. Her grip was weakening with the shaking and the weight of the lady was pulling her down. Her shoulder was in terrible pain.
“DON’T LET GO!” The lady screamed as she held on to Jennifer for her life.
As Jennifer tried to think of a way out, a flaming ball fell deep into the hole underneath them. It was loud enough for them to hear the impact and see the burning light fade away into the endless darkness.
The void gave her a strong chill down her spine. She saw people who were in the same predicament lose their grips and fall down screaming. She saw others fall in by the increasing size of it all. Each one of them had a unique scream that symbolized their doom. Jennifer didn’t scream, however. She, instead, heard a roar (just as loud and hoarse as the first) from underneath.
“GOD, PLEASE! HELP ME!” The lady cried.
“I can’t pull up!” Jennifer shouted.
“PLEASE! DO SOMETHING!” She was losing her grip as well.
There were flames coming up from the bottom of the pit. Gusts of strong current winds preceded them. Another, closer, roar was heard along with the sounds of colliding boulders.
“I can’t!” Jennifer lost her grip. She began to plummet down the void.
A third roar came from underneath, protruding a gust of wind like no other. It had as much force as a tornado that scurried them into the air and out of the pit.