Well, we did it, we actually did it, we had one job, one freaking job, care for the planet, treat it as if it were your own family, and for the love of god, don't start a nuclear war!
Well, as you can see, we didn't really listen. The human race, at the point of extinction because a few people were stupid enough to think that starting a nuclear war with over 15,000 Nuclear bombs at their disposal was a good idea.
"Well, considering the people in power as of now, I'm kinda surprised that this took so long to happen really." I said to myself with a slight chuckle.
What? Give me a break, I just died! I think that gives me the right to poke fun at the world I live in!
Well… used to live in that is.
I mean, you think after two world wars, TWO, we would finally learn our lesson. Guess not. People said that mankind was its own worst enemy, though I didn't think that we would be the cause of our own extinction. Then again, I doubt anyone else did either.
"You'd think after Afghanistan became a nuclear wasteland, they would have called off the shots." I said.
Nope, fuck that I guess. Let's drag everyone down with us!
Bunch of assholes.
Right, I guess I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Haruto, Haruto Harlaown. I'm dead, and probably most of the people living in the West Coast are either dead, about to be dead, or survived.
Then again, survival in our world means that you have to live in a secluded and cramped shelter, and while that may sound okay to some people, I would be weighing my options at that point. I also didn't die in the most painless way, nope, I got blown up by a nuclear bomb, yeah not exactly the most painless way to kick the bucket.
Then again, it's better than dying slowly from the cancer radiation can give you, so I guess it wasn't ALL bad.
Right now, I'm in an empty void, I don't know what's gonna happen to me, don't know whether or not there's some god up there, deciding if I'm going to heaven or hell, or if this is it, trapped in nothingness forever.
Well, hell doesn't really sound all that appealing to me so if this is it, then I'm fine with that.
"Though it would be nice to have SOME company at least, I'd imagine it would get quite lonely here." I said, putting emphasis on some.
Well, I still have the clothing that I wore before I died for some reason. Then again, I guess that's better than a white robe or chains, DEFINITELY better than chains, I wore a black zip-up hood, though the inside of the jacket, as well as the hood were grey. I wore the jacket with a white t-shirt underneath it, dark blue jeans and a pair of black shoes with white laces. I have sort of a golden lining between red and black when it comes to my spiky hair, I have blue eyes and pale skin.
In terms of looks, while I'm not drop dead gorgeous, though I'm not exactly what you would call ugly, at least that's what I think. I'm about 16, and I'm 5'8 Feet tall and weigh about 126 lbs. I guess there's really no point to it now because I'm dead, don't really think that looks matter too much in the afterlife.
I started to think to myself as I floated around in nothingness, thinking about the events that have just transpired.
It seems that this is the only thing I CAN do right now, think, think about my life, about my hopes, about my dreams, everything I did, and everything I wanted to do. I started to recall the events that happened not that long ago.
It was all so sudden, everything seemed just fine, everyone was going about their normal day, kids playing in the park, adults talking about whatever was on their mind and how they can't wait till their next paycheck, teenagers were either playing sports, hanging out, talking what they were going to do over the weekend, like going to parties, or starting parties, going out and getting drunk, or doing whatever teenagers do these days, everything just seemed fine at first.
That's where I came in, I was with my friend Matt as we just got done talking about whatever could really come to mind.
"Man, I can't believe I lost another one." He said, trying to get over his most recent break up.
"Meh, I wouldn't really let it get to your head. Relationships are nothing but a trap really. You get into one and you can never get out without looking like an asshole." I said.
"It's not all that bad man. It's nice to have a connection like that. Makes you feel as if you have someone to go through life with." Matt defended.
"Yeah well if we go by that logic then you've gone through at least twenty five lives, not counting the others you're bound to pick up." I said.
"Damn, that's cold man." He said.
"Oh well. You still stick around don't ya?" I asked.
"Yeah, I can always talk to you about this sorta stuff. Even if your method of talking is rather… blunt." Matt said.
"Whatever, nothing wrong with being honest. No point in sugar coating it." I said.
"How about you? You got your sights set on anyone?" He asked.
"As if. I don't need someone to help me feel like I'm wanted. I'm a one man guy. I don't need anyone like that." I said.
"Man, I don't really understand that. I mean, why go through life when you can't share a little bit of it with the people around you?" Matt asked.
"Why would I want to share MY life? It is mine after all. No one else's. If they want it? Well that's too bad for them." I said.
"You know you sound like a selfish asshole right now." He said.
"What else is new?" I asked. "So when's the new one coming in?" I asked.
"Geez you make this sound like a business." Matt said.
"At this point it is. I can never take this sorta stuff seriously anymore." I said.
"Geez, no wonder you can't get a date." He said.
"I can't get one because I don't look for one, dumb ass." I said.
"That and your height. Girls tend to like boys who are taller than them." Matt said.
"Well no one asked them! They're missing out anyway!" I yelled.
"Heh heh, sure. Though I'm just messing with ya man. I'm sure you could make a girl happy one day." He said.
"Damn straight." I said.
"Still, really thought I had something going there." Matt said.
"You know the saying, 'There are plenty of fish in the sea', you can't just keep reeling in every fish that decides it wants to take a little bite," I said
"You see, some click with you, while others don't, and focusing on one single fish might just scare it off, and then you ruin your chances with it."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. Hey, you wanna go out of town, I heard there's this really good movie playing in the drive-in theater. I was going to go with Sasha, but you know how that turned out." He said in a slightly saddened tone.
"Can't go out of town, remember?" I said as I pointed to the patrol at the front of our town. Ever since this whole war started years ago by that orange asshole, no one was able to go anywhere; the government decided that it would be for the best if we stayed in our towns, where the shelters were.
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate everything they're doing for us, but I hate the feeling of being cramped into a single area, which wasn't exactly good on anyone who had jobs outside of towns.
They had to quit their jobs to go help with the patrol, which meant either patrolling the border, helping with supply runs, or just serving the people who couldn't get homes due to the lack of space for the houses.
Most of the planet's countries were not able to support life due to the bombs, so a lot of people had to be sent to the other bigger countries to support their population. America wasn't doing so hot either, most of the East Coast was pretty much a radioactive wasteland and couldn't support the lives of the people living there.
It didn't really help that our town had most of the best weapons that our country had to offer.
So we were a PRETTY big target for the other countries.
"Oh, right." Matt said with a slightly disappointed tone in his voice.
"I really hope this damn war ends sometime soon, I can't stand being cramped in this town for any longer." Matt stated as he stretched his arms.
"Preach on that one brother, I know exactly how ya feel." I said back to him laying back on the bench we were sitting on.
"So, what do you wanna do then?" Matt asked me. I was about to respond until Matt's ringtone interrupted me. He picked up the phone and walked away from the bench to a more private spot. He was on the phone for a good 3 minutes before he hung up and started to walk back to the bench.
"Sorry man, Mom wants me home to help her cook dinner for the family, you know how it is right?" Matt said to me as he began to gather his things. I nodded my head understanding that he had to go home and cook for his 5 other siblings.
"Well, see you around man." I said as I waved goodbye to him. He waved back as he got into his car and drove off. I decided that it would be best to head home myself. I didn't have a car and buses were always crowded, so I decided to walk home.
Seems like everyone's doing something these days.
Not really a lot I can do to help around, I've got my own problems to take care of anyway.
Though still, sometimes I just hate that feeling of being useless while others are doing their best to help out.
Though every time any of the guys in my friend circle even tries to offer their help, they always shrugged off and were told to go enjoy their childhoods.
Yeah, a childhood with the looming threat of death and destruction over our heads, yeah, real childhood we're having.
Now I'm sure most of you are wondering why this specific town would be targeted if the other countries could go for the bigger cities. Well, it just so happens that we have most of our best scientists, soldiers, and medics working here.
Now why would the government make a decision like this?
Well, not a lot of people expect there to be anyone important in a little town like this one.
So they decided to cramp every important soldier, medic, scientist, etc in one area.
So you can probably tell that it's really cramped.
Even though they're hard to find, they're not impossible to locate.
It's only a matter of time until the jig is up and some random country decides to bomb the place.
Though that won't happen for a while…
Right?
I was just about half way home until I heard the sirens start to go off. Through the speakers, I heard someone telling us to get to the shelter immediately.
"Incoming warheads, repeat, incoming warheads, please make your way to the shelter immediately."
"Well shit." I said to myself.
I started to run as fast as I could to my house to see if my family was already getting ready to get to the shelter until I heard something in the sky, like some sort of cannon fire. I looked up to what can be only described as Armageddon.
"Okay, okay, let's see if we can't find a shelter before my ass gets blown all the way to kingdom come!" I said as I ran into town.
"Come on, come on." I said as I desperately looked for some form of shelter.
The town had already evacuated it seemed, well, I guess that's good, but they KINDA forgot someone!
"Come on! Where the hell is a damn shelter?!" I yelled.
"Excuse me?" I heard a female voice ask.
I turned around to see a young girl, probably no older than nine standing right behind me.
The hell? Is she lost or something?
"The he-heck you doing out here kid?" I asked, catching my swear.
"I-I'm looking for my mom. Do you know where my mom is?" She asked.
So she is lost, damn, bad time to get a lost kid.
"No, I don't know. But more than likely she's in the shelter, I'll take you there, though you'll have to ride on my shoulders, we can't afford to lose any more time than we already have." I said.
"What do you mean? What's happening?" She asked.
She doesn't know? How the hell doesn't she know?
… No, I guess it makes sense. A child her age wouldn't really understand the concept of war.
"Something really bad is about to happen, and we need to make sure that we don't get in the way of that bad thing." I tried explaining as simply as I can.
"W-what?" She asked.
"Look, just come with me. I'll take you to where your mom is, alright?" I said.
"Really?! Thank you so much mister!" The girl said as she ran up to hug my leg.
"Alright, up and at 'em, we need to keep moving." I said as I picked her up and put her on my shoulders.
"Wee! It's so high up!" The girl said.
Heh, guess it's a good thing that she's able to keep her free spirits and all that.
"Let's get moving." I said as I started to run.
"Whoa! So fast!" She said.
We ran down various streets, following the cars that were more than likely heading for the shelter.
"What's your name kid?" I asked.
"Naruko." She said.
"Nice name, the name's Haruto." I said.
"Nice to meet you Haruto! Hey, where are your parents?" The newly named Naruko asked.
"Well, I HOPE that my mom and grandmother are at the shelter already." I said.
"What about your daddy?" She asked.
My face soured at the word.
"I don't like talking about him." I said.
"Why not?" Naruko asked.
"Look, it's not exactly something I like talking about, so drop it." I said.
"... You don't have a daddy, do you?" She asked.
"Nosey one, aren't ya?" I asked.
"That's okay, neither do I." Naruko said.
"Huh?" I asked.
"My daddy left when I was really young, mommy doesn't like to talk about it. But I would like to meet him some day!" She said.
"Why? He left you, he obviously doesn't care about you." I said.
Shit! That sounded REALLY insensitive.
"I don't believe that. Maybe he just had to go to keep mom and me safe." Naruko said.
"Hate to be that guy but it's Mom and I." I said.
"Oh! Sorry." She said.
"Don't sweat it… I never had any desire to see that old bas—jerk. He left me, so I don't care where he is or what he does." I said.
"... Do you really believe that?" Naruko asked.
"So what if I do?" I asked.
"What if he was just trying to keep you safe?" She asked.
"Well, he's sure got a weird way of going about it." I said.
"We all do weird things. I do, mommy does, we all do. But that doesn't make us bad, right." Naruko asked.
… Is this kid REALLY nine?
"How old are you, kid?" I asked.
"Um..." She began, counting her fingers.
"Eight." Naruko said.
E-eight? Like hell you are!
"R-right." I said.
"What if you met your daddy? What would you say to him?" She asked.
"I wouldn't say sh—crap to him. I would punching in the face." I said.
"Now that's not very nice!" Naruko said.
"Well, he wasn't exactly very 'nice' when he left me." I said.
"What if he tried explaining to you why he did what he did?" She asked.
Good question, what if he did?
"I-I don't know." I said.
"Well, maybe you should give him a chance! I'm sure he's a nice man! I mean, you're nice enough to take me to my mommy!" Naruko said.
"Heh, you're a good kid. Don't lose that mentality, kay?" I said.
"I don't understand." She said.
"Don't worry about it, we're here." I said as I saw the pod leading down to the shelter ahead.
"Okay, now all we have to do is—!" I began, only to read the words on the screen door.
"Capacity: 587,923, limit, 587,924." It read.
Are. You. Kidding me?!
"What's wrong Mister? Are you okay?" Naruko asked.
"W-what? Oh, yeah, I'm fine." I said.
Oh who am I kidding, of course I'm not! There's only room for one more person, and there's two of us!
"Where's mommy? Isn't she supposed to be here?" She asked.
I stood there in silence for a moment before sighing heavily.
"You're a good kid. Stay that way for me, kay?" I said.
"What?" She asked.
Though before she could question me any further, I shoved her into the pod and closed the doors.
Well, no turning back now.
"M-Mister?!" She asked.
I didn't respond, I just desperately attempted to figure out how this pod worked.
"W-what are you doing?! Why did you close the doors?! You need to get in!" Naruko yelled.
"Sorry kid, only one of us will be making it down." I said.
Okay, I think you just press this button and—
Sure enough, the button leading down to the underground shelter activated.
"W-what?!" She asked.
"Listen to me. You've got a bright future ahead of you, more so than me. Look for you mom and dad down there." I said, putting two of my fingers to my eyebrow.
"See you on the flip side, kid." I said as I pushed the button, causing the pod to go down.
I sighed and sat down on the ground and stared at the bombs that were heading directly towards me.
"... I'm okay with this. Be good kid, be better than me." I said.
Sure enough, the bombs landed on the ground, causing them to detonate.
I didn't feel any pain, everything was numb, I could only see a bright light in front of me as I felt my consciousness slip away.
Though before I fell into unconsciousness, I could hear a voice calling out to me.
"You're going to be alright." I heard a female voice say.
Then, nothingness.