Our Very Own Apocalypse, REVISED

Our Very Own Apocalypse







"God dammit Kate! What do you mean, you’re not coming?"

Sighing, Katherine leaned over her speakerphone, "Well, I've been doing some thinking and well I just figured that you and Willis wouldn't really need me tonight."

"Of course we need you! There are three bombs, Kate, one for each of us!"

"Yeah I know, but its not like they're heavy and two of the activation sites are pretty close together. Besides, this is such a guy thing-”

"A guy thing!? Kate! God damn you! That's not the point! That's not the fucking point! This was supposed to be our night!" The speaker screamed and screeched as the audio output reached its limit.

"Jeremy," Kate sighed, leaning over the speaker, "If it was any other night."

"Any other night? Any other night! Oh my God Kate, is this what I think it is! Are you dumping us for the fucking prom?"

"I've always wanted to go! This is my only chance!"

"God Kate! Did you forget that this is the night before they renew their security? Just… fuck!"

His voice faded as his heavy footsteps slammed over the speaker.

"Jeremy! Jeremy please..."

"He's gone, Katie."

"Oh, Will...I didn't know you were there. I guess you’re pretty mad at me too." She sniffed and her eyes glazed over with unwelcome tears.

"Well, mostly just disappointed. But I understand, I mean sort of I guess. I've never really understood this whole Prom thing. But I know if I only had one chance at doing something I've always wanted to do, I'd want to be able to do it."

"Yeah...you're a real good guy Will. I wish Jeremy wasn't so terrible." She lay her head down by Will's soft voice and for a second wished that he would come with her to the dance, but she couldn't even think to ask that of him. He and Jeremy had a mission to do with or without her. She already had a date either way.

"Jeremy means well, and you know that temper’s nothing new."

"Yeah," Katherine laughed, "He was always in trouble for mouthing off."

"This project really means a lot to him.  I think having you there did too."

"I know, we've been planning this for a long time, but I've been doing some thinking on my own and I want to have my Prom night. I know I’m being silly, but the two of you can do it with out me and after that it won't mean anything anyways."

"I guess your right Katie...well for what its worth I hope you have the night of your life."

She smiled and let the tears slide down her cheek, "Thanks."

She turned off the speaker, wiped her face and began her preparations.

Her dress was bubblegum pink. It had delicate lace straps, a very fitted bodice and a huge billowy skirt that flared out in all directions. It was a horrible tacky cliché of a prom dress and Katherine loved it all the more for that. She loved the way it just barely skimmed the floor as she waltzed around her bedroom, the way its cheap rhinestone brooch refracted bits of light and threw them chaotically across the walls, she even loved its badly hidden silver zipper that just begged to be unzipped.

She felt like a princess in it, all powdered and sparkling with rosy cheeks and clear young eyes that could both smile and cry at a moments notice. Her fingers, so often skinned and blackened with grease and motor oil, tonight were painted with gold. She had dreamed of this night all her life and she would live up to its expectations. All she needed now was a prince to come and save her from her suburban solitude. With a bit of disappointment, she supposed she had to settle for her date, Theo.

Theo was nice and he was really very attractive, but he just wasn't what Katherine was really looking for. When she was honest with her self, she knew that she would have very much liked either Willis or Jeremy to come for her. Or rather, a queer mix of the two of them. Willis was sweet and his voice was gentle as was his touch and with him she knew the night would be flawless. They could dance and flirt shamelessly and even if Katherine embarrassed herself, Willis would smile at her because he was nice. But with Willis that's all it would ever really be, nice. He was too modest for anything else.

Jeremy however, might be a rough date but he had very strong convictions and looser morals. He was full of fight even if the situation didn't quite call for it. If he wanted something he would have it. Katherine knew that with Jeremy the night would always end with her on her back. Even if she was going to be a princess, she couldn't say that she wouldn't prefer that.

But there was no chance that either of them would be there with her. They were going to stick to their plans and carry out their mission even if Katherine deviated. It was too important to terminate. Their entire tiny world depended on it. Katherine only decided that it depended on them, not her. But it didn't matter and Katherine knew if she thought about it any longer she would have to redo her make up. She hardly had time for that. Theo would arrive any moment.



Jeremy and Willis crouched low in the tall grass. They were close now to their destination and as it grew darker it would be easier for them to get closer. Techima Industries Chemical Plant glowed orange across the horizon. It stretched in both directions for miles. Towers of steam and drums of toxins crowded the skyline turning it into a wasteland.

"I've never been this close to it before." Willis stood and wiped a film of moisture from his glasses, "It’s enormous."

"If it mattered, we'd both have cancer after this." Jeremy stated his eyes like hollow dents in his skull.

Willis laughed nervously. From where he stood he could make out the silhouettes of the diseased security guards. They were barely able to stand, their heads lolled and Willis could just imagine the drips of slobber sliding from their slack mouths. This was their last night on the job. Tomorrow new guards would be drafted in and they would be sharp as tacks. But tonight, Willis and Jeremy could have their run of the plant and the guards wouldn’t remember to work their com-links even if they did notice them.

"Techima Industries Chemical Plant.” Willis sighed.

He watched the smoke eat the night sky like locust. But it was more than that. Sure, the environment had taken a beating from the fumes and waste, but even it didn’t seem to wither as quickly as the people did. Willis couldn’t remember when he noticed that everyone around him was slowing down, asking questions twice in the same conversation, and forgetting their daily routine. He would never forget, however, the night his sister was born and his mother cried and his father left the room cursing God. He hadn’t known then, but it wasn’t God that left off his sister’s face and left her struggling hopelessly until she suffocated. No, he had Techima to thank for that and looking at it now made his heart catch fire.

“Are you ready?” He asked.

Jeremy nodded, “I still think of how my father might of handled this…If he had had the courage to do anything but die. But it seems like everyone’s fathers are dying these days." He clutched his heavy shoulder bag tightly, "The fight has been left to their sons..."

"And daughters." Willis added.

Jeremy spit on the ground. "Fuck that bitch."





Soft music droned around Katherine as she and Theo danced at the Prom surrounded by their peers. They all twirled in time to the beat and Katherine kept a delicate smile on her lips, but her eyes were far away. Every acquaintance she had ever known had hugged her and taken her picture then left giggling and promising to call her over the summer. Each time she was cheerful but she was carful not to promise the same. She knew better. Apparently so did Theo.

"Katherine, are you okay?" He looked down at her brushing away his thick golden mane.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine."

"Let’s sit down for a bit." He led her off the dance floor and to a quieter seating area with little white plastic chairs and tables decorated with blooming flowers and paper crêpe streamers that, for the most part, matched Katherine's dress.

"Do you really want to be here with me?” he asked her hushed like.

"Of course I do! This is what I've dreamed of and always wanted” She blushed as the words came out but she couldn’t help the honesty. At this point she knew there was nothing to loose or fear. All she could think of were the nights she spent being a real girl with her own mother sitting on the couch with popcorn or chocolate. Her mother was in love with the classic movie channel and then soon so was Katherine. It seemed every time they watched one about a high school romance it ended with the couple happy at the prom. Her father had not taken her mother to the prom and Katherine heard about it after every movie.

Her mother used a face cream made in the Techima factory. They hadn’t known what it could do then; her mother’s increasing forgetfulness seemed unrelated. She lost her job. Her father drove her to the hospital after he got home from work one day and she was sitting on the couch in the clothes she wore yesterday. He could tell by the smell she hadn’t gotten up. They wheeled her from the car to the ward. Later he told Katherine that he should’ve taken her mother to the prom and asked Katherine if she wanted to help him pick out a good dress for her. It was pink, like from all the movies, and they matched all the carnations people brought to the funeral.

“Do you really want to be here with me?” Theo asked, unaware it was the second time.

Suddenly Katherine started crying.

Theo cleared his throat, "I...I can take you home if that’s what you want. It’s okay if you don’t really want to be here with me.”

Katherine shook her head, “No, its not you. I don’t want to go home, but if you could take me some where else, I’d really appreciate it.”

All of the powder and sparkle had been washed from her face and her bare rosy cheeks were left streaked with black liner that streamed from her clear eyes.          

She sniffed "Do you promise not to ask any questions though?"

Theo nodded and helped her up.





Willis and Jeremy met each other back in the field. It had been nearly five hours since the sun had completely set and they had split up to place the bombs in the chemical plant. They had run almost the full expanse of the plant, making their way to the pre-determined weak spots in the plant's construction where a well made explosive could start a massive chain reaction of destruction. The plant was large enough proportionally and held enough volatile toxins to set their whole town ablaze. All that was left to do now was flip the switch and set it all off.

"Damn I'm glad I won't ever have to do this again." Willis sighed as he collapsed on the damp ground.

"You could say that again." Jeremy threw down the empty shoulder bag and touched the cool metal detonator in his pocket, "So when do we flip the switch?"

Willis snorted, "I'm surprised you’re asking! Aren’t you in charge?"

Jeremy pulled at the grass around him, "I don't know...I was feeling so confidant starting out and I was mostly angry. I don't know if I want to be the one in charge of the end of the world."

"Wow." Willis sat up is awe, "Where is this coming from? I thought we had these types of feelings under control. I know this is a hard decision, but once we make it, it won't matter."

Jeremy shook his head, "We're good at lying to ourselves. This bothers me, it has since the day we made this plan. But it's our only option left and we're the only ones strong enough to do it."

  "We're the only ones smart enough to do it. But I can feel it all catching up to me. The whole time we were in there I couldn’t take my eyes off the blueprints. I kept forgetting where I was going. I guess I was hoping that staying off Techima products would prevent the decline longer, but in another year or so we probably would have been as sick everybody else. Just one more generation doomed to end up like our parents.” Willis sighed.

"Like Kate’s mom."

"How did this happen, Jeremy? How could we all let something so obviously killing us grow like this?"

"We didn’t know. It seemed like a good thing at first. It was cheap and convenient, not to mention it created jobs. I can’t even remember when my dad realized that it was killing us.” Jeremy slid his thumb over the detonator. His father must have felt like this when he had had that pistol to his head, had his finger over the trigger. He hadn’t been able to stop Techima four years ago. He hadn’t been able to stop his oldest son from wasting into nothing or cope with the thought that Jeremy would share a similar fate. But he had been able to stop himself from watching it and he had no second thoughts when he pulled the trigger.

“This is the right thing to do. We have to end this. We are one of the last ‘small towns’ left in the country, a thousand miles outside of our borders it’s the year 2098. If we let Techima take over here, it will spread to the other isolated towns and our way of life will be over and people like us just wouldn't survive out there in the advanced world. Hell I don't even know if they are people out there." Jeremy told him, his voice full of acid.

"Techima came from out there."

"Exactly...Well I guess it’s been long enough." Jeremy said as he again rubbed his thumb over the cold detonator, "We should set this off soon."

They were quiet for a moment and just watched the gas roll from the tops of the chimney towers and stretch out across the sky. Thick breaths of toxins just soared from the plant and consumed the air. Starlight was too dim to reach through the thick mass of smog. Instead the night was in olive tones.

Wet footsteps squashed behind them.

Jeremy turned on his heels, "Who's there!"

A pink figure threw its arms up.

"Hey! Hey, its just me!" Katherine stood a few paces behind them with her hands up in alarm. She glittered soft pink against the night and smog.

"Katie!" Willis ran and embraced her enthusiastically. She hugged him back and hid her tears in his jacket.

She looked over Willis's shoulder, "I'm sorry I didn't come Jeremy..."

He just glared at her steadily.

"Please Jeremy! Please forgive me! I don't want to die with you so mad at me!" She cried still holding onto Willis who now was looking at Jeremy expectantly.

He sighed, "Fine! So we're all together now?"

Katherine sniffed and nodded.

Jeremy looked her up and down, "Well I guess that's enough pink to last me through the after life. What did you run here from prom?"

She shook her head, "Theo dropped me off. He didn't ask any questions, but I told him to get his family out of town."

"You know he won't make it in time." Jeremy was frank with her.

"I know." She took Jeremy's hand, "so are we gonna do this?"

She reached for Willis hand as well and they stood in the field together as one.

Jeremy pulled the detonator from his pocket and held out in the polluted air. Its chrome surface reflected pink. Its button clicked satisfyingly as Jeremy thrust it down.

For a second there was absolutely nothing. Jeremy in a fleeting thought considered that one of them had botched the wiring. It was the moment before he started to glare at Willis that the atmosphere burst into oblivion.

The grass was ash instantly.