Armageddon 2020

I have seen the end. It was revealed to me in a dream.

I was driving down a highway in the not too distant future, fleeing from a war that never should have started. Suddenly, black helicopters descended out of the sky. They fired rubber bullets at the cars on the road, slowing them to a stop. Black ropes and men in black uniforms slid down to the pavement. They gathered everyone into vans and drove them to a nearby holding facility.

We were taken to a giant arena and told to keep jogging around the outskirts of a gymnasium. There were hundreds of us, normal people taken from the streets. Upon a stage, there were three important people. One, a man in round spectacles, was wielding a gun that looked like it shot out playing cards at high velocities. In the center, a woman stood firm. She was terrifyingly cold, but oozing with sexuality; a beautiful Russian, stone-faced and neatly pressed. She leaned over and spoke to a burly American general on her left. He shouted into a megaphone for all prisoners to line up.

Immediately, women were taken out of the room. I never saw them again. Kids who screamed or men who complained were shot down instantly. The men were stripped bare. As the woman walked up and down the ranks, she sized up each man for both looks and length. Meanwhile, the General started a monologue. He told us that the world had come to an end. The year was now 1. This was a new era.

The woman took several of us to the stage. I was pleased to be chosen, but knew it was wrong. We watched as the rest of the men lined up to be shot in the arm by the man in glasses. He shot a card into their skin. The backlash of the canister sounded like the quick pulse of a nail gun. From the prisoners came immediate screams of agony. I could tell the pain was excruciating. They filed out of the gymnasium like listless zombies, no energy to rebel. As they left, a stamp with a chicken in a circle was marked on their foreheads. I remember the symbol well.

The dream blurs and I escape somehow. My father finds me, but he has the chicken marked on his forehead. I shout for him to wipe it off, frantic and scared. He says it’s impossible and that I need to get one too otherwise they’ll have me arrested.

I ran through dull, barren streets and into a tall forest. There, a group of people who also escaped were huddled around a small, portable television. In between the rolling static, we heard a news report. It was in Spanish, but I understood it perfectly:

"A great hole has opened up deep in the jungles of South America." The reporter has a helmet camera on and is preparing to descend into the dark abyss. As he descends, a black emptiness shoots up and out of the hole, starting to pour into the sky and cast the entire earth into darkness. Before the station goes completely blank, screams of "El Diablo!" fill the air.

Within moments, we in the northern part of North America, could see the darkness spreading over the horizon. The group gathered together on a yellow school bus and fled for the west coast, northern California. We didn't stop, but all throughout the streets were hundreds of people starving unless they had the chicken stamps on their forehead. We raced in and out of the evacuated vehicles that littered the road. No one spoke a word.

When we arrived in California, we drove down the coast and into a cove along a hidden beach. A leader expressed that the world had come to an end and that it was our job to reestablish a standard of love on the planet. Fire spinners and belly dancers scattered the sands as the sun slowly set. The darkness could not reach us there. For the moment, we were safe.

My mind wandered to the lady on the stage. I felt aroused and almost wanted to go back to her. I knew these thoughts were wrong and that she was the reason the darkness was spreading across the earth, but it was a struggle to forget her beauty. I tried to tell the others about the Russian woman and the fate of the rest of the world, but they didn't want to listen. They were consumed by their own agendas.

I began fearing for the future, but then the water from the ocean gently lapped my toes. I waded waist-deep into the swirling body of water and was consumed by its abundant, blue energy. I lied back and let the surf wash over me. Slowly, the cares of the world drained away, like it did for the others. The lady and general could not find us here. Then, I realize that my fiancé was missing.

I jumped out of the water and ran out of the cove. I was no longer safe. My phone rang and it was Lucifer. When I answered, I was teleported into the bottom of the dark abyss, in South America. In the cave, El Diablo towered over me like a Balrog from Lord of the Rings. I knew that I was the last obstacle standing in his way. He roars and the moans of the deceased shook the walls. I looked down at my chest and it started to glow an indigo blue.

I reached into my chest and pulled out a sword made completely of light. El Diablo stepped toward me, causing giant rocks to fall from the ceiling and smash onto the ground. He lifted me and tried to evoke fear, his only real power.

I was empowered by the light in my chest and the sword in my hand. With a fierce cry, I stabbed the sword deep into the demon's mouth and pierced his tongue. He let go of me and I started falling down, down, down into the black abyss. Suddenly, I flew up and out of the hole and landed back onto the surface of the earth. The darkness in the sky was being sucked into the chasm from whence it came, like a vacuum of space.

For the moment, the world was saved. However, the woman and General remained. I feared that I couldn't defeat her, but knew that I must. This is where the dream ends. Though it happened long ago, it remains crystal clear. Will this be the end to the world as we know it? I guess only time will tell.