When the World goes Down

When the World goes Down by Maya G.

A small curvy woman, wearing a white apron, was quickly making her way towards a pair of metal doors. The sound of her black pumps echoed down the hall made out of metal walls. As soon as she got to the doors, she shoved her ID against the red glowing scanner with shaking hands and after the scanner recognized her, she swung the doors wide open into a large room, mainly made out of glass with a view of outside. Even though the room was large, a lot of electronic and chemical devices filled it in a very organized way. A middle-aged man turned around to look at her with his hazel eyes; he straightened up and backed away from his computer screen, as she came in.

With a mesmerized look on his face she said with a demanding voice “Sir Yamada! Los Angeles has been completely destroyed into little pieces by the huge earthquake that was broadcasted a day ago! This has gone too far!” She stopped talking and started picking nervously on her green overalls, hoping for some sort of reaction from him, but all he did was pretend that the news had never reached him. His careless behaviour filled her mind and body with rage. With no reaction she shouted at him: “World hunger is even worse than before. People are even killing each other over food! Our nature is dying due to all the poisons our ancestors have left behind! Our oceans are full of toxic oils, killing all fish! It is so bad that we even began to farm these on land! Global warming is having a tremendous impact on all of us! People are also dying of many new diseases caused by diverse contaminations everywhere as well as the ozone rays! We´re living in 2103 and the humanity of the past thought we could do it better, damn it! Do I have to go on?”

Her face was flaming red out of anger as she continuously pulled on her brown, wavy, long hair. She was breathing heavily, due to the lump in her throat. “Was the city completely evacuated, Maria Gonzales?” he asked, as calmly as he could, surprising the woman in her early 30s.

She soon nodded… “Yes, sir! Troops were sent there to search for corpses. It would be a miracle to find a person alive! All the people who got out are taking shelter in the few and cleaner parts that are left of America…Still! We can´t keep on living like this, hearing the awful news from all over the world about people dying! Heck, the only animals alive are located in a badly kept Zoo near Corpus Cristy Texas. No sufficient veterinary care is provided to those poor animals, the whole population has been almost completely erased! We´re rotting away! The ones left living, are all dying at a rapid pace!” “Isn´t it better that way? Less people to care about!” Yamada bended back down and starred back at the glowing screen whilst going though his black, short hair. Maria´s olive green eyes widened before she furrowed her brows and screamed: “Are you nuts?”

“Why? Less people! Less trash! Global warming´s problem solved! We also have solar cars which are very environmentally friendly…don’t you think that this helps?”, he said and turned around with a mischievous smirk. Then he walked over to a table full with medicine and chemicals. Maria rubbed her tired eyes and continued: “Those cars are currently very useless and dangerous if the car overheats it could lead to…I don´t know….an explosion!? People are also trying to avoid going outside, and those who still live outside, will probably be dead soon!”

“Stop whining, woman! This…”, he turned around to face her and threw his hands into the air referring to the well-known catastrophes, “This right here is the beginning of a new era! We are making history! That war did us good! It actually reduced the world’s population and the future is bringing nature back to a balance. It will take some time, but humanity will get there some day.” as he finished his speech, he put his hands on his waist.

“You mean that nuclear war? The war America and Russia started? The 3^rd World War? That war used a ton of nuclear weapons! We lost 73% of the human race and 7% were mutated and 4% of the mutated people died soon after! They still had feelings and a mind of their own! They were harmless which we could see through the nanobots we placed in their bodies when we started this job years ago, but you don´t even care since you only care for yourself! You would rather be the last living person on earth!”, she growled angrily.

He made his way over to Maria, still with his cocky smile plastered on his face, he raised her head to face him with one of his fingers: “Oh, Maria! I´d rather die on this planet alone as long as

I´m with you!”

She growled at him, showing how furious she was at him: “I´d rather go to hell than live to be the last person with you!” Angry about what she just had said to him, he raised a hand faking to slap her. She kept on glaring up at him, not flinching a single bit. In that moment he thought of what he had become. He shouldn´t have people under his authority, because he didn´t want to get his feelings hurt again. The war erased all his friends and family and she´s the only one left who he cared about.

His hand lowered and he smiled sweetly at the woman: “I´m glad that I’m working with you!” Maria´s facial expression became confused. “I mean…the idea of placing nanobots inside living creatures was a very smart idea! We were able to understand animals and we could talk telepathically with the bots in our brains! These things can keep every single memory we have, and although forgotten long ago, we can now see them again…and if the world turns out better, I can die peacefully and maybe help the future, so they´ll know what happened right here and now!” His hand landed on Maria´s shoulders and then a few seconds later, he pulled her to an embrace. Maria stiffened and didn´t dare to blink. Even though she was touched, she couldn´t move or hug back. It would´ve been so wrong for her. She just couldn´t understand why he would have been so mean after he showed some signs of him having a crush on her. The death of his loved ones was hard enough and she understood, but why would you just stop and not care for the health of your only best friend left?

Yamada noticed that she was feeling uncomfortable in his arms and he let her go. Trying to think of an idea of how he could fix their relationship, he starred deep into her eyes. He patted her shoulder and finally broke the silence (the silence with electronic sounds in the background); “Get some snacks!” he commanded. She starred back at him perplexed. “Now!”, he said more aggressively and she immediately ran out.

While she was going as fast as she could to the kitchen, he dusted-off his black t-shirt and apron which he usually did after hugging someone. He walked over to a mirror and smiled at himself to record his words in the nanobots which are in his body: “Maria. These will be the last words you´ll hear from me so please listen! I did this for you to know that I´ve always loved you and I´m so sorry for the things I´ve done to you! Let´s just hope that we´ll leave this world quickly…I love you!” He walked back over to the table full with medicine and chemicals and picked up an empty syringe, a bandage and a small bottle of a venom, that could kill any human being quickly, out of the first-aid-kit. He got frustrated taking off his apron and wrapping the bandage tightly around his upper arm, tied it with his mouth and his right hand. It didn´t take long for the arm to numb down, so he gently pushed the needle through his fair skin and into the artery, pulling out a syringe full with blood. After doing that, he put a plaster on the needle wound and ripped the bandage off of his arm and threw it into the trash. With his blood in the syringe, he walked over to a shelf with chemistry dishes and got a petri dish, pouring his blood into it.

With the petri dish in his skinny hand, he made his way over to his computer, put the bottle next to it and moved the mouse so the stand-by screen would go away, but he stood there frozen staring at it. The countdown on the computer reflected in his eyes. His frustrated expression faded into a smile soon after and he clicked it away to hide it and shoved the petri dish into a docking station, specifically made for it. After the computer registered it, he zoomed in to find one of the nanobots that he was searching for and clicked on it. It was downloading as Maria came through the door.

“Why was I suppose to bring this?” she asked and sat the tray of goodies down next to the computer, looking over his shoulder and onto the screen, “It´s also not good for our health to eat here you know, right!?” “Psh!”, he laughed, “Who cares?” “I do!”, she crossed her arms and glared at him.

As soon as the download finished, he got two chairs for them to sit down. “This is as a…let´s say a ´bring the good ´ol days back again´!”

Maria slowly sat down in the chair she was given, straightened the black jeans she was wearing and rolled her eyes in annoyance.

Yamada sat down, made the video bigger to watch and typed in a date, replaying the moment they first put the nanobots in him. They laughed at themselves from the past and it also surprised Maria that he could remember all the dates with funny memories of both of them. He told her that these memories are his prized possessions.

They watched their happy times in the park, eating sushi. The emotional times when Maria´s pet died. The fights they had which were soon lifted and then the time when the first bomb fell in Russia. The most recent mass shootings to the first nuclear bomb, killing Yamada´s friends and family. He stopped right there, he was starring at the news with teary eyes, blurring the screen in front of him. His hand moved the mouse over to a countdown and saw that only a minute was left of it. Typing the date of today with shaking fingers and pressing play. In that moment he was a nervous wreck and swallowed half of the bottle of pills. Maria´s green eyes widened at the screen of the recent talk to the mirror for her, playing in front of her eyes.

When she heard him gulping, she turned over to him and ripped the orange bottle out of his hands and read the label, realizing he had just swallowed half of the bottle of the nuclear dirt from outside. She stood up from her chair instantly and started yelling: “Why would you do that?” The bottle went flying across the room while he was reaching for it and shaking, he stood up. He pulled her into an embrace and held onto her with his dearest life. It took him a while to speak up, but when he did, he was weak and tired: “This part of the building will sink into the earth!….You were suppose to swallow the other half of that bottle so it won´t be too painful…I wanted to die together with you!”, his voice turned more into a whimper and soon warm tears were falling down from Yamada´s chin on to Maria´s shoulder.

Red lights turned on and a painful ringing was set off on full volume. Yamada pressed the drive button to get the petri dish. He got it and pressed it into Marias hands, giving her a kiss on the forehead. The whole room flickered in red as the floor began to shake underneath their feet. It was hard for them to stand because of the enormous earthquake. Maria landed on Yamada´s chest when they both fell to the ground. Both felt when the room began to fall. Things fell and broke into little pieces, giving the two victims wounds all over their bodies. Yamada noticed that the long shelf with the chemistry devices was tilting, signalling to him that they could be squished to death. With all of the strength he had left, he was able to push Maria away from him. The shelf was falling towards him and he just smiled at her until the shelf crushed him, while she was helplessly watching. A computer device slid over to her and she kept it by her side, but she was too busy crying to pay the device any attention. Her cries and screams mixed with the still ongoing alarm until her eyesight turned black.

Dust and tiny pieces of glass were flying around, from the ruins that once was a lab. It was quiet and peaceful with small dirt and stone pieces crumbling from the wall settling on the ground. A while later a painful sounding scream of someone unknown was heard.