A Dream in the Wind

      I stood, staring into the sky breathless, the expression on my face as if I had just seen something. Something so terrible I would imagine it almost impossible to describe, much less imagine. But, it wasn’t the normal sky I was staring at, it had no moon, but instead, the Earth, but not our normal, blue Earth, a spinning red mass of chaos.

         I woke up that morning, sweaty, tired and sick. I got up only so I could get something to calm my stomach, and me, down. As I walked into the kitchen I stopped by the window, scared to look out, yet overwhelmed by the strong human curiosity. I forced myself to look out, telling myself it was only a dream, because nothing like that would happen in my lifetime, much less in any generations to come. As my eyes came to focus on the small tree outside my window, I noticed it seemed like I, and the rest of humanity, was safe for the time being.

         I grabbed just a glass of water, feeling a lot better, mentally, that I was okay. I laid back down, drank the rest of the glass of water, and fell back to sleep, not wanting to go to school feeling as I did…

         …I stepped out of my house, thinking of that dream, thinking about how ridiculously impossible it was. I climbed into my car, began to drive down the road, at normal speed, nothing I wouldn’t do…

         I sat up in my bed, sweating more than previously, and this time with a headache I couldn’t believe. Two dreams, within the same day coinciding, not unusual, but the type of dream, and how real it all seemed, was crazy. So I sat up, and went to the bathroom, and decided maybe it was time to get some fresh air. I stepped outside, and again, everything was normal. Trees were swaying with normal wind, the sky, with its normal beautiful morning colors of red, orange, a glimpse of blue gracefully colliding and mixing with red and making a soft purple. I walked around in the soft grass barefoot and laid down. After a while of calming down and cooling off in the morning chilliness, I stepped back inside and didn’t go back to sleep, not wanting to wake up with that feeling that I had lost my mind, so I sat down on the couch and turned on the television, and switched it to the news, still paranoid, and wanting to figure out how the current war was fairing across the sea. All seemed normal, and the war was still fairing as it had been the day before, steadily moving forward, we hoped…

         …the moon seemed more cratered than it had looked earlier in the day, slowly swinging its way around the planet. I had started seeing more stars than normal lately, although I wasn’t worried, could just be the sky was clearer or I was just paying more attention. I drank my coffee and jumped in my car to head to daily classes. I had math today, and physics, one hell of a combo. As I was driving down the road, some vision echoed across my brain, a vision I didn’t imagine, and I had no idea what it was.

         When I got to school I sat down in my math class and started working, trying not to think about the vision. I’m normally a hard worker, but today…was different. There was too much on my mind. The exams coming up, the crazy vision, and, something else I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but it scared the hell out of me.

         I headed to physics…

         I sat up on the couch, frantic, scared as if I had heard a bomb drop in the distance, or something crashed. I got up, sweating, again, the headache back along with the stomach ache. Whatever I had I didn’t like it. I got up, and ran to the door, swung it open in a frantic daze, and unfortunately, to my surprise, I saw debris raining down from the sky, way off in the distance. I couldn’t believe my eyes, it did happen. Something bad did happen.

         I continued to look, and saw an extremely large dust cloud. If an airplane or a space-shuttle exploded, it shouldn’t cause a dust cloud of that size, seeable from this distance. It could be only one thing… an asteroid…. I ran to my couch, flipped on the news channel, and to no surprise they already had it covered.          

         “A large meteor has crashed into New York City.” said the announcer. I couldn’t believe it. Of all places something like that could….

         The shockwave hit, shaking everything in my house, even knocking glasses off of my counter. I couldn’t imagine how devastated the crash site was… Or anything with in 5 miles of it. What am I saying, I didn’t even want to imagine it. Neither do I now…

         New York, ruined. I felt another shake, no where near as strong as the first. After a few minutes the news channel went off air, and came back on within a few minutes, with a different story, of how another asteroid had hit somewhere else, and in other parts of the world.

         Not just New York…The entire planet.

         

         Things started to break down after that. The economy, slowly falling apart, people starting to go a little crazy and began to stock up on things they thought they needed and hiding in basements. The asteroids were not going to be the worst. Nations’ alliances started to crumble as well, looking for help from each other, which caused a problem when neither side could help each other, let alone themselves. It seemed as if every nation had there finger right beside their big, red button.

         The war got worse and worse, more nations joining in on a private war, which initially was a war no one else would even think about entering, except us and them. Missiles, bombs, grenades, bullets flying everywhere, nothing was safe. The planet first ravaged by asteroids, now being ruined by us. By us! Can you believe it! In a time of crisis we don’t help each other, we don’t cooperate, we get mad, we get upset, and we raise arms against our closest neighbors, our closest friends!

         

         I got lucky. I was one of the few who were told of the underground government project underway. Something they had kept secret since the great race to the moon; the great race to Mars. And we were sure we were going to get there first. Especially now, when some had to get away, or else all of humanity would have been lost in an uncontrollable, total war. But not only did they tell me about it, they told me I would be going, along with a few other nations trying to save the human race. My ship, with a total of 100 passengers would only be 1 out of numerous ships trying to make it to mars. I couldn’t believe it. Mars. Something we only dreamed of, until now. I gathered my things. Luckily no one thought to bomb New York, since it was already ruined. Within a day I was ready to go, the launch to be in only one week. Very close, yet so far.

         As I stand on this ship, looking up at the red, ruined Earth, beautiful, although scary, and depressing, I recall those dreams; the ones I fear started this entire thing. Those dreams that haunt my memory even though they really happened, and the site of that dust cloud, and the rest of the falling debris, which wasn’t all debris I realize now, but also other asteroids, ready to doom others and enclose the world’s fate and insurmountable demise in it’s own destructive wrath.