Diary of the apocalypse #1

30th March

We've been watching the news all day and every channel is showing the same. 

Countries all over the world are reporting the same thing, tremors, from deep in the ground. Strong enough to feel on the surface but not enough to be classed as earthquakes. Every couple of hours another place is added to the growing list. 

My sister has come to visit so we've gathered at my mums and we're all sat eating the customary Saturday roast as we watch the weatherman point at wavey lines on their map. They're explaining tectonic plates and how the friction caused by them colliding can cause the tremors. How it's all very natural and how the increasing temperature of the planet is causing the expansion of the earths surface. All normal and to be expected. My mum and sister are discussing the worst effected areas and how they're on the plate lines. Reassuring each other that here in England we should be fine as we're not on any of those lines. 

I have a bad feeling though. 

It's early evening and I'm back at my own flat. The TV is on in the background, some noise for company as I make my lunch for the next day. I have an open kitchen/living room so I can watch TV as I cook. 

The tremors have slowed enough that the news updates aren't interrupting the normal programmes any more. It's been several hours since the last one in fact and I've not thought about it since. 'Lord of the Rings' is on TV again for the 5th time this year so far. They cycle through the movies and then move on to 'The Hobbit', which is annoying as that messes up the story timeline. Once those are done they go through the 'Harry Potter' movies. 

Ironically Gandalf has just destroyed the bridge with his staff to drown the Balrog when the news headline runs with an important update. There's been an earthquake, big enough to register on the Richter scale this time. 

It's in Tokyo, Japan but there hasn't been too much structural damage. The reason for the update is because of the large fissure that has opened up in the middle of a busy street. So deep that the helicopters reporting can't see the bottom. You can see that there are cars teetering on the edge and some even caught on the deeper ledges inside. As the British news reporter stands on the outside of the police tape you can see the Japanese police and rescue crews desperately trying to get to people. It's chaotic and noisy and the reporter is having trouble being heard. The connection to the main studio is bad so the audio keeps cutting out and the picture keeps freezing. 

I'm on the couch at this point, watching the news intently. The connection stabilises just in time to hear that the reporter and the crew are being evacuated. More tremors can be felt through the street so the police are moving everyone away. My pasta starts to boil over so I rush back to the hob.

I'm in bed trying to sleep, so naturally I'm scrolling through social media. There are so many videos of the earthquake. Ones showing the fissure opening, ones of occupants abandoning their cars and running back through the traffic. People watching their cars fall into the hole. Brave people saving others that weren't so lucky. One catches my eye, the title is in Japanese but it's been translated, it says 'What They're Not Telling You' and it's live. I tap it with my finger and it starts playing. It's clearly a video from a mobile phone but the quality on phones these days can rival normal cameras. It bounces as the person videoing runs towards the huge crack in the ground. You can hear a deep rumble, it sounds like groaning and creaking but also like boulders falling. It's odd. Then you can see the buildings shake and people start to panic, then it goes quiet again. There's another rumble and a hissing sound as a gas rises out of the crack in the ground. You can see that it's a dirty yellow colour. The person videoing even zooms in on it and you can see it's thick. A man in a police uniform sees this person videoing and tries to take the phone from them. You can hear scuffling but there's a hand over the lens and then the image cuts out. I keep scrolling through my news feed but the rest of the images are more or less the same. 

This is the first part of my new fiction series that I'm trying out. It's not perfect and I could keep editing it but then it would never be posted. Done is better than perfect, I'm excited to see how it does!

L xx

As always you can find me on Twitter @Laurenailie0.