Then Cometh the End Chap 1:The Quest p1

Then Cometh the End

Chapter 1: The Quest

         The buildings shook, the ground rumble, and smoke created a thick, hazy layer between the sky and the ground; this world was literally going to hell. Ruth was bent over gasping for breath. She had decided to go with the crowd and had started to run and panic. Now there she was, her lungs having decided to her, nowhere near whatever the goal was. Was their even an end goal in mind when it comes to panic? The pain slowly faded and she took the time to observe the area. Ruth was only a few blocks from where she worked. Damn, she was a slow runner. She could even still see the building where she worked. A sigh escaped her lips as she made her way back to it. Shit is going down and here I am worrying about my stuff, Ruth thought. The trek back was uneventful. Sure people were screaming, running, and praying, but they pretty much ignored her. Ruth silently thanked whoever was listening for having an office on the first floor. The office looked just the same as it did hours before this whole thing started.

         Her day had started normally enough. Some orange juice, a couple pieces of bacon, and some toast, then out the door. Get on the bus, get off the bus. Get on the train, get off the train. Clock in at exactly 9:00 (maybe 9:05 if the bus or train is late). Sit down, check her email, and pretend to work when somebody came by. She usually spent most of her day staring up at the florescent lights.

Ruth snapped back to reality. Now was not the time for flashbacks. She grabbed her id badge and her cell phone. A quick glance at her id badge revealed that it said the exact same thing as it did the past few years.

Name: Ruth Barnes

Birthday: 03/07/1985

Height: 5'9"

So forth and so on. Yep, exact same thing as always, she thought. A quick glance at her phone revealed that she had several new text messages from various friends and family. They all seemed to be the same. Are you ok? Where are you? What's going on? She answered these questions to the best of her ability and headed out of the building.

Thomas was the friend of hers that stayed in the same city as her. He lived a few miles from where Ruth worked. It was safe to assume that the buses and trains would not be working, so she started to make her way there by foot. Things were still pretty chaotic when she left the building. People were still running around with no apparent goal in mind. The earth rumbled on occasion, as if to protest the people running about. Black smoke covered up the blue of the sky. The looting was new, she noticed.

Someone grabbed her arm and spun her around. Ruth now found herself face to face with a man with raggedy clothes. Well, more like face to neck; this guy was almost as foot taller than her. "Do you know what's happening?" he asked her, spewing his foul breath over her. Ruth looked into his sunken eyes, hoping not to find some hidden motive. Finding none, she answered "Nope. I'm just as lost as the next person." She tried to remain as calm as possible, trying not to show too much emotion. "Oh, I'm not lost girly. They might be lost, but I'm not. I know exactly what's going on." he said, pulling her closer. "Do you now?" she replied, simultaneously trying to get free from his grasp and preventing him from closer to him. She failed both these tasks. The man may look thin and weak, but his muscles were like steel cables, impossible to break.

"Yes I do! Have you read the Bible?" he said in a harsh whisper, his mouth almost touching her ear. "It was prophesied in the book of Revelations that the end of times would come. This is only the beginning! Already the good and the righteous have been taken up to be with God, leaving all us filthy sinners behind." The man was getting frantic now, his mouth was frothy and he had started to shake Ruth a little. Suddenly, the man went down on his knees. "Oh dear Lord, please have mercy on me. I'm sorry for all of the wrong I've done! Oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please" the man said, starting to weep. Ruth took a few steps back. He kept repeating himself over and over, waving his hands in the air as if to signal the angels he believed to come get him. Ruth watched this display with a morbid fascination before coming to her senses. She had places she needed to go, people she needed to see. The rest of the trip consisted of her speed walking and making wide berths to every person she meets along the way.

Thomas was one of those people who got swept up in the fad of buying industrial looking apartments. It had high ceilings and more space than he needed. In the middle of the area Thomas called his "office" was a king sized, where he was now lounging. "This man was seriously thought that this was literally the rapture. You should have seen him. It was like...it was like...it was crazy!" Ruth said, pacing up and down one side of the bed, punctuating what she said with hand gestures. "Of course he does, honey. You thought that the end of the world would somehow get rid of the crazies?" he said. "Well, no. But you'd think their would be more important things on their mind. Once crazy always crazy." Thomas had gone from being spread across the bed to sitting up, "So what do you think is happening?" Ruth said falling down on the bed next to her friend. "All I know is that the power is still on and I have enough supplies to last me until FEMA comes and rescue me." he replied. The smell of cigarettes filled the air as Thomas lite up. Dulled sounds from the outside were the only sounds that filled the apartment. Ruth stood up from the bed and resumed pacing. A large window was on the west side of the room. It didn't have any shades on it in order to have the largest amount of sunlight possible come in. Little sunlight shone through when she finally made her way around to it. The window offered no new perspective on what was going on that she didn't already know.

"I can't believe you don't have a television." Ruth said. They had moved from the office to the kitchen and Thomas was making them whiskey on the rocks. "T.V. is evil. I've told you this many times, Ruth. It rots your body." Thomas said going over the same rant that he has told to numerous people ever since he first moved into his apartment. She raised an eyebrow to this. "Says the man who decided to become a prostitute." she said. Thomas slowly turned his head towards her and raised an eyebrow. "First of all, I'm an escort, not a prostitute. Second, sex is natural, T.V. is not." he said, pausing only to sip his drink "And lastly, I wear a condom. Or he wears a condom, depending on who wants to top." Ruth rolled her eyes at all of this. "But the fact stands that we need to find a T.V. It will probably give us more information on what is going on." she said. "True. But like I said, I have all the stuff I need to survive right here." "But what if we need to evacuate? We would have no idea where to go." "Hmmmm, fine. Just let me put some pants on." With that Thomas headed back to the office.

There was a pawn shop near by Thomas' apartment. When they got there, there was a small group of people huddled around the shop's window. It seemed that they were not the only ones who had this idea. The group looked worn and dirty, even the ones in business suits. "So, what's going on?" Thomas asked. He automatically snapped into his perky attitude which made him very popular in the past. It didn't seem to be working now. A middle aged woman in a shawl turned to them and said "Nobody knows. Some are saying that it's a terrorist attack, others are saying that this is all just an act of nature. All we know is that a lot of people have just disappeared. Vanished. Into thin air. I don't think that this is an act of nature or a terrorist plot. I'm not a religious person at all, but I've seen enough movies and TV. shows to recognize what's going on." With that she turned away back to the TV's. Ruth could see enough of the woman's face to see that her lips were moving. "The crazies are out in force today." Thomas leaned down and whispered. A swift elbow to his side prevented him from continuing his thought. "Geez, excuse me for telling the truth." he muttered to himself. "Really? Are people really disappearing?" she asked the group, ignoring her friends remark. The last time she did anything remotely religious was going to St. Peter the apostle Catholic Church on Christmas Eve with her mother. But something about this really was starting to frighten her.

A man turned to answer them this time, "Yep. They don't have the exact number of how many, but they say it's a pretty big number. Maybe in the millions." "Do you believe in the Rapture?" Ruth asked. The man gave it some thought. "Not really." he said "It would explain why the people disappeared, but I'm holding out for a scientific explanation." With that the man returned his attention to the female news anchor on the screen. "You honestly can't be believing in this shit, can you?" Thomas said. "I don't know, man. I don't know. This is honestly starting to freak me out." she replied. A feeling of panic was starting to bubble up inside her. She started to feel the signs of a panic attack coming on; the heavy breathing, her body began to tremble, and she was getting woozy. Thomas recognized the signs and ushered her away from the store.

"This is what happens when you get a Catholic education." Thomas said a short while later. They had wandered over to a park nearby. It was created to add a little flair to the grey, metallic neighborhood and had done a very good job of it. Ever since then, it has grown in size and popularity. Even now, the apocalypse could not diminish the beauty of millions of flowers and trees that lived in that park. Ruth felt a little better. The panic was gone, but the dread had decided it wanted to stick around for a little while longer.

"It's not that bad, once you get used to it." she said leaning back on the bench. Thomas let out a small laugh and shook his head. They fell into a comfortable silence and watched the world. A lot of people who were in the park were like them, just sitting there and trying to figure things out. Some were praying, some were weeping, and others were just staring into nowhere. Soldiers and law enforcement were starting to appear to handle the situation. "You know, I thought the apocalypse would be a bit more interesting. Sure we have the earthquakes happening every so often and some fire. But where is the brimstone and the plagues?" Thomas said, breaking the silence. Ruth did not reply right away. She took another look around the park and said "Maybe that stuff comes later?" And with that remark a blinding pain struck her across her forehead

It felt as though someone was pressing a red hot iron to the left side of her face while simultaneously carving something using a dull knife. And then it was over. The pain had only lasted a few seconds, but it seemed like a lifetime. She rubbed her hand over the area where the pain came from. Where their was nothing before, there was now some sort of numbering. Ruth had a very bad feeling about what it was. "Jesus fucking Christ! What the hell was that?" her friend's voice came from behind her. She turned towards him to find that he had fallen off the bench in what looked like the same fit of pain that she had. He was also rubbing the left side of his forehead, the same area where her pain came from. "Here, let me see your forehead." Ruth said, crawling over to Thomas. She brushed away his hands and saw three numbers that caused her sense of dread to ramp up to eleven. On his temple were the numbers 666. "The mark of the beast." she whispered sinking down onto the ground.