| Chapter 1 As the newsflash ended, Kharhin remained stunned. He couldn't believe what he'd just heard, even if it wasn't confirmed, nothing could have prepared him for the news. He looked up at his dad and asked, "Something's going to stop it right dad?" "No Khar," his father answered, " I don't think anything will, didn't you hear what they said? Seventy-six miles long! Not even all the supposedly destroyed nuclear misiles could keep it from hitting. The best that would do, saying they would actually pull that manuever, is break it apart and give it nuclear powers to rain upon us! No, there's nothing they can do to save Earth." "But what's gonna happen to everyone else that's left here?" Kharhin asked desperately. His father replied by shaking his head and saying, "I don't know son, I really don't know, but I do know that I'd rather be here when Earth dies than desert her in her hour of need." "Dad, I'm being serious, this isn't like going to war or losing mom! Everything will be destroyed! EVERYTHING! You, me, all the Christians and devil worshipers alike, it's not like death will choose between us!" "Yeah, son, I know, that's what's the worst part about it, the good and the bad, me and you. But hey! What can we do? I'm a union worker and you're still a kid in school! Our kind are used to being forced down until we can't take it! What's new about this? Let's go grab a burger." Suddenly Kharhin found himself wondering how his dad always ended up making the worst of situations seem bad. "Ok dad, but don't bet everyone you can eat anything they bring you this time, those burgers they seem to find behind the machines can't be healthy for you." Kharhin's dad Faltor laughed heartily and clapped his son on the back as they went through the door. He knew that it wouldn't be easy for his son, nor himself, over the next few days, How can this be? he wondered to himself I just hope I can keep his mind away from it for a while. Chapter 2 "Dad, come on!!" Kharhin yelled, "I'm gonna be late for school!" "Alright, alright, just a second! I'm finishing this e-mail! It's not like it's the end of the world or anything!" his father yelled back, stiffling his laughter. "Ha, ha, very funny dad, I though you were supposed to give me warmth and caring like parents are supposed to." Kharhin said as he walked in the room where his dad was. "Huh? Oh, yeah, who ever gave you that lame-brained idea? I gotta have fun too, and that leaves out all the 'warmth and caring' you'll ever get from me" he said grinning while finishing his e-mail. "Well then," said Kharhin, playing along with their little game " I guess I'll just have to go to Social Services to get all the warmth and caring I need." "Now, now, you know I can't afford the court fees for doing that, you'll just have to do with out it for a while, give me a couple weeks." replied his father as he finished his e-mail and sent it. Losing interest in the game, Kharhin decided to change the subject from Earth's demise to more important things, "So who's that e-mail to? Elayne?" "As a matter of fact, it is, but you already knew that now didn't you? Hurry up and get in the car before you get in trouble." Faltor replied sternly. He liked to make jokes but couldn't stand it when others pried into his personal life, even if "others" was sometimes his son. "Alright, alright, no need to get so pushy!" Kharhin retorted as he pushed passed his dad to the front door, "Just hurry up and get me there already." Grinning, his father replied "Well, you know we have to go the long way because of construction right?" Kharhin groaned as he slumped down in his seat and buckled up, waiting for the morning ride to be over so he could talk to his friends about the news he heard last night. As they drove along, he noticed odd looking people looking around nervously and several mobs forming in front of the local news stations. After a while they passed the housing complex's and saw that most people that normally should have been at work were sitting out on their balconies talking to one another and drinking. Kharhin forgot all of that as he caught site of the school and the graffiti covering it. "What the?" he asked as they pulled up. "See ya later son!" Faltor called out, knowing his son didn't hear him over the noise of the students milling around the normally empty drop off point. As Faltor drove off, Kharhin walked past the people he never talked to but knew of and walked to his friends while staring at the graffiti put on the school. "Hey Ab! Where's Alexa?" Kharhin asked. "She called me last night crying, her whole family's packed up and went to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, I heard her dad yelling that they're getting on that ship or it's not leaving Earth," Ab said, looking worried, "do you think they'll get on it?" "Not a chance from what I can make out from the report on the news last night!" Kharhin said. "What'd it say?" she asked. "It was talking about how they're gonna have FBI and CIA agents out there to protect the facilities so any would-be protestors couldn't destroy "humanities last hope" of surviving." he answered. "Wow, I hope they don't kill them...not like it'd matter, but still, they probably won't do that will they?" "I really don't know. Hey, who did this to the school?" Kharhin asked. "I heard that it was that cult that's around here, what're they called? Doomsday cult? Yeah, that's it" she answered. "So are we having school or not? I was 5 minutes late when I showed up, so I'm still a little uninformed." Kharhin stated. "Well, that's the other thing, there's also a bomb threat that says something like "If you come near the magical grafitti, it will explode" and since you can't tell magical grafitti from ordinary grafitti, noone's allowing us to go in the school, and also not allowing us to go home either." she explained. "Greeaat! So we get to just sit here until they decide what to do with us or until that asteroid comes and decides for them eh?" He asked sarcastically. "Don't say stuff like that! You know I can't stand tough situations!" Ab exclaimed. "Yeah, I know,...sorry" Kharhin replied sheepishly. "Hey, I'm gonna go find Zarain," said Ab, "I'll talk to you later!" "Ok, see ya!" Kharhin exclaimed. Well now Kharhin thought to himself what to do now, just made Ab mad and Alexa's gone off with her family on a power trip to certain doom, as if I wasn't on a trip to doom too... He walked around for a while, talking to other people he sometimes said hi to, about the "situation" coming up as if it weren't really going to happen. After a few hours the principal came over the band director's megaphone and told everyone that they could go home today but must come back to school tomorrow. Great, another day of pure waste before the end. Chapter 3 When Kharhin woke up, he found an e-mail from his dad saying that he was to stay home today and do whatever he wanted as long as it wasn't too illegal. He shrugged and went to the kitchen to get something to eat. When he was done, he went to his room and started playing Zalcothian Blade on X-box. After almost falling asleep from boredom several times he decided to go outside to see how the neighborhood was doing. As he walked out the door, he saw immediately that there was something very wrong. Trash cans were over-turned, windows broken on houses and vehicles alike. He walked down the sidewalk, to see if he could find anything else out of the ordinary, and he did. He saw what looked like shelters being dug out of the ground, people setting up tables, chairs and entertainment centers outside. What? Do they think that it'll help to dig a bomb shelter? he thought to himself. When he reached the end of his neighborhood, he kept walking, soon he found himself in the poor section of the city. Whatever he thought might be wrong in his neighborhood, it was nothing compared to what was going on here. Everywhere he turned he saw signs of disaster, homes were torn apart by those fleeing to someplace only the previous owners knew, empty bottles of all kinds of alcohol lay everywhere, mangled pets lay in the streets from being hit by vehicles. He was about to turn back to go home when he caught a strange smell, when he went to investigate. When he found what he had been searching for, he dropped to his knees, barely able to believe what he saw, someone had hung themselves. As he turned to flee the hideous sight, he found a note on the door blowing in the wind. He went to it and read: Know this, I have not done this for all to know, tell noone or my sacrifice is for not. Once read, he knew that he would never betray the trust of this dead person. He returned home as quickly as he could, being challenged by small children telling him he had to play with them. He looked at them only briefly and fled home. When he got to his room, he knelt before his bed and cried, knowing it would do no good, but also knowing that he could not stop from doing it. After he had cried until he could no more, he opened his Bible and read for a while, then prayed to God for forgiveness and retribution for the wrongdoings he had committed. When he had finished praying, he went and took a shower, when he got done, he heard his dad on his link, talking to someone unknown to Kharhin. After waiting a few minutes, his dad was through and called to Kharhin. "Yeah dad" he said with sadness in his voice. "What's the matter son?" Faltor asked. "Nothing really, I guess I'm just now truly realizing what is going to happen and what it means." Kharhin replied. "Well, that's good, and that's also another reason I wanted to talk to you." Faltor stated. "What do you mean?" Kharhin asked. "Well, lately there's been a bunch of suicides and hate crimes being committed, I just want you to know that that isn't the answer out. If you're thinking of that, tell me 'cause I don't want you to think it's alright to do that." said his father. "Of course not dad, I wouldn't do that, you know me better!" exclaimed Kharhin. "Yes, I know, but some of my fellow employees have been telling me stories....those that came back today. Lot's of people are panicking right now and blaming others for what's happening." Faltor explained. "What do you mean? What's happening?" he asked. "Well, you remember about the oppression of the Jews througout history? Every time something bad happens, it's blamed on the Jews? Well, that's happening again. The law enforcement agencies are trying to protect them, but....not all are good people. They won't say anything over the newslink, but that's so it doesn't spread more than it already has. Look, I've invited some of my Jewish friends to stay with us so they can escape the insanity a little better. You don't mind do you?" Faltor asked. "Woah, no! I don't mind at all! If that's really happening..." he left the statement unsaid. "I'm glad you feel that way, and I'm proud of you," he congratulated Kharhin, "they're coming tonight in about a half hour, that's who I was speaking with." "Ok, but how many are there and are any my age?" Kharhin asked. "Only 2, and they are not anywhere near you age son, sorry." Faltor replied. Chapter 4 Kharhin greeted Jacob and Elizabeth the next morning. They had come at 11:45 the previous night and had talked to Kharhin and his dad for several hours about what was happening and what they thought would happen before they finally retired for the evening. "Good morning Kharhin" greeted Elizabeth. "Morning Elizabeth and Jacob" said Kharhin, knowing that Jacob felt a little awkward greeting others in public, even if it was a house. "Kharhin" said Jacob nodding his head in acknowledgement. "Do you know where my dad is?" Kharhin asked them while opening the refrigerator for milk. "He said he was going out to get some food to pig out on and movies to watch today and...tomorrow until the time." Elizabeth replied, her voice faltering at the end. "Ok, cool, so what do ya'll want to do?" he asked. "Well.....we can't really do anything out of doors because of the...mobs." Jacob answered. "Would you like to play any card games or watch t.v.?" Elizabeth asked. "Well, I'm not sure really, that's all I did yesterday, it gets pretty boring after a while." said Kharhin. Laughing, Elizabeth said "But I thought that was every childs dream! To sit around all day was mine as a child I know!" "Yeah,...I guess it was mine too....until I actually did it, it wasn't all that great." said Kharhin. As Kharhin finished talking, the door opened, his dad, Faltor, staggering in with his arms full of groceries and movies. "Hey dad" said Kharhin. "Hey Khar, what's going on?" Faltor asked. "Not much really, we were just talking about childhood dreams and how they don't end up like they seem." he stated blandly. "Man right, I remember when I found that one out!" Faltor said while chuckling. After a few more minutes of talking, they sat down and watched movies all night, while pigging out on junk food. Chapter 5 When he awoke the next day, he heard loud noises all around him. He reached up and pulled his link off and looked around him. His dad and their guests were all wide awake too, they had received the same treatement that he had. Quietly, they looked at each other with questionin eyes until Kharhin finally broke the silence, asking: "What was that?" Just then a message came over the newschannel, explaining that some group of hackers/programers had used a virus to wake everyone up with loud noises almost unbearable. Once the newscast was over, the four looked at each other and nodded, then started grinning which escalated into giggles then full-fledged laughs. They all got up and ate breakfast, praying to God as it would be their last meal. After eating they went and watched the remaining movies and ate the last of the junk food. When it was over and they were just sitting around, they heard the announcement of the spaceshuttle Mayflower about to launch and they all went outside to try to see it take off. Some time after they had watched the shuttle take off, they went inside and got some chairs, then went outside and sat down on the chairs. Soon, they heard the announcement that the asteroid would enter the atmosphere in eactly 3.5 minutes. In that time, they took a long last look around them, looked towards the oncomming doom and prayed the prayer that their Lord had taught them. |
| The Lost |