"Did you hear?" asked a customer wildly from across the aisle stocking up on Lysol wipes. "About the new virus?"

Milly nodded her head. Who hadn't heard about it? It had been all over the news for months. The new virus that was supposedly worst than the last one.

Cov-25. Dubbed two-five by everyone. It was always: _Did you hear about two-five? Have you got the two-five?_

The lady in the aisle...

“Attention! Attention all staff,” says the manager over the P.A. system. Why do we even have one of those? What are we, children in school? He continues, as I begrudgingly stop my work and listen to his nonsense

“Today’s lunch special is pepperoni pizza with Caesar salad. Also there is a meeting with all department heads at one today. And to the person who is writing profanity in the woman’s bat...

No one is really doing any work me included. I just want to get home to my wife, pack the car and head West. The news this morning had said that although communications had broken down there was still hope and to carry on with normal daily business. That was this morning by lunch time a murmuring rumour was going around the office saying that a tactical battlefield nuke had been used.

...

“Help!!” I heard from another room. The voice was female and she sounded truly scared, as if she was already dying.

I rushed over towards her and saw a crowd of people already standing there.

“What’s the matter?!” I shouted at the person next to me so I could be heard over the tumult of people.

“I reckon she was one of the first to be struck by the End.” He shouted back.

Not the End. I backe...

“Hello citizens of Metrodalia, this is a governmental message coming from the head of house”

Everyone hushes after this is said, and look up at the glassy sky where the announcement is being broadcast.

“Do to too many servers being created, because of the increase in population, I am sorry to inform you that all seven million citizens living in Metrodalia, city 337828, will be terminated in five...

“ My family. Where is my family?” she panicked There was no way the world is going to end without her by their side.

She always had a terrible feeling the whole world would end prematurely, she’d hoped that the others wouldn’t be around to see it, that it would only be her world ending, but here they were. There was no way this was happening.

“Shit!”

She rifled through her bag trying to find her...

The sudden silence of clacking keyboards jolted me out of my nap. I peered over at the bottom left corner of my screen, “2:42PM.” The work-day wasn’t over for another two hours at least, but everyone had stopped typing. Instead, their attention had turned to another screen, the big TV that overlooked the entire cubicle area was flipped to Channel 7. Instead of the usual midday news of petty theft ...

“Donald. We need to get the fuck out of here.”

Donald. Looked at me. He said nothing, all he did was eye me down. He grimaced. That smile forming on his old and deteriorated cheeks, the skin around his eye cracking at the corners. He never looked older than he did at this exact moment.

“You’re freaking out Ross. Trust me. It’s nothing.”

My brain felt like it was going to explode. “Donal...

“Have a great day and enjoy the rest of your stay here at the park! “, Eleanor called out to the park guests leaving the restaurant.

This was always her go to line whenever saying bye to the park guests. It’s something you develop over time while working here, it’s your personal park spiel. The lines you recite in your head over and over until it feels like clockwork only while you’re here...

I wish I could say this morning was like every other morning, but it isn't. I had spent the night in the seismology lab monitoring the earth's tectonic plates. Their activity was more unusual as of the last 36 hours.

9 am Tokyo time and I clutch the graphical evidence I found a few hours before. I watch as the president of the University of Tokyo, the President of the Seismological Society of Ja...