A/N: This is a pretty serious story I wrote to commerate the eight people a day killed in a drunk driving accident. Every fifteen minutes in the United States someone drives drunk, and someone becomes their victim.

Note: I try very hard to make my writing realistic, and because of that there's some crude humor in the first scene of this chapter. If you are offended, please read at your discretion (but keep in mind, sixteen-year-old boys are hardly G-rated).

Disclaimer: I do not own the Suite Life of Zack and Cody.

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

-T.S. Eliot, "The Hollow Men"

This Is the Way the World Ends

…not with a bang but a whimper…

12:02 A.M.

It was raining.

The little red car drove mildly along the dark roads, music playing loudly, but not blasting, and speed just slightly over the limit. Driven by a sixteen-year-old, he was accompanied by three friends, all the same age. They were returning from a classmate's birthday party, and basking in the reality of the newly donned summer vacation.

"Dude—Lauren was all over you, man!"

"Yeah! Check it out-I see you and her heading towards, like, some random closet-,"

"-Actually, it was a bathroom-,"

"WO-OH!"

Three of the four boys hooted in approval as the car continued its journey home. The driver drummed his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel as he glared at a red light.

"Why they gotta do that, huh?" he demanded. "Red lights…It's like, after midnight!"

"It's the aliens, man, I'm telling you. They've got this whole planet rigged!"

"God, Drew, are you stoned again? This is gonna be a long ride home…"

The boy name Drew flipped off someone in the backseat who snickered with the kid sitting next to him. The driver, whose name was Sam, whistled romantically. "Zack and Cooper…" he said teasingly. "I'm pretty sure there's a motel up here—should I just drop you two off and-,"

"-Shut up," said the kid named Zack, laughing good-naturedly as Cooper, who sat beside him, booed. Drew and Sam laughed.

"Anybody else taking the ACT this Tuesday?" Sam asked the vehicle a few minutes later. Drew said no, Cooper shook his head, but Zack raised his hand with a theatrical groan.

"Thanks for reminding me," he said with an eye-roll. "I haven't even, like, prepared-,"

"-Hey!" Drew suddenly exclaimed, turning almost completely around in his seat. "I saw you and Monica at the party, man. Are you two, like, going out, then?"

As his friends made mocking noises Zack calmly shrugged. "Dunno," he said casually. He grinned. "She's hot, though, isn't she?"

"Don't ask him!" Sam laughed. "He was in the bathroom the whole time!"

"Hey," Cooper added, smirking. "Where you actually doing it, or just constipated?"

The car erupted with laughter, and when Drew opened his mouth to defend his dignity Zack beat him to it. "Maybe it was a little of both!"

"Ten bucks says he d-,"

-Suddenly something rammed into the car, slamming it off the road and into a ditch. The car turned once, twice, before coming to a stop at the bottom of the small incline. Screeching tires split the humid night air, and sparks lit up the black sky.

It was still raining.

As the rain fell outside of the building, a teenaged boy sat in front of the television, watching Saturday Night Live as his mother nervously paced around their small kitchen. Hands wringing each other as if for comfort, the middle-aged woman spoke nervous words as though they brought the answers she so desperately craved.

"He should be calling…he should be calling…" Suddenly she turned to her son. "What time did he say he'd be back, Cody? Midnight, right?"

Cody shrugged. "I think he said he'd call, like, a midnight."

His mother opened her mouth to say something, but at the moment she was going to start off another round of frantic concerns the telephone rang. She sighed and clapped a little in relief, and even the teenager in front of the television felt his shoulders relax involuntarily. He focused back on the skit revolving around a certain notorious heiress.

"Hello?" Carey answered the phone eagerly. "Yes, speaking…What-," her tone immediately shifted from hopeful to shocked. Cody looked up from the TV, cocking his head a little. "…Oh my God…Oh-…no, he was just—it was just for the ni—," Her eyes closed and she began shaking her head, murmuring the anguished mantra of no, no, no, no, no… "Is he-is he going to-to-…and they can't until—oh. Can you just tell me what they're saying-Yes. Yes—I'll be right-right there. Tell him-tell him I-I love—yes. Oh, God…I'm coming. I'm coming-," and with shaking hands, she hung up the phone.

By now Cody had risen from the couch, muted SNL, and fixated intently on his mother. "What?" he demanded, seeing her white face and tears. "What's wrong?" She covered her face with her hands and shook her head. "Mom!"

Sniffing violently and grabbing her purse, Carey turned to her son. "Zack's been in an accident," she told him, voice quavering dangerously. "We need to get to the hospital."

To Be Continued

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