The Story of Kyle Brodensworth, Age 14
November 23rd, 2902
Los Angeles, California
It was a cool, windy day at my house in the suburbs of town. I sat on the curb, watching children playing in anticipation of thanksgiving's arrival tomorrow. I was only wishing that I were their age, nothing to worry or think about, no care in the world. But building anger between our nation, The Vexus Empire, and The Order of The Illuminate keeps me from enjoying life like the younger kids are. I only worry about our nation as The Illuminate's dictator, Slackey Prime, still has most of Star Fuzion Russia, Asia, and all of North Africa. They still have Europe, but at the beginning of the month, our army made a movement against Europe, and we will hopefully take it back. All we need is time, and hope, but that is hard to come by because Slackey is edgy, and could make a huge retaliatory strike against the Imperial States at any time. I especially worry because our city is the most populated in the I.S. that is in range of long-range weapons from the Illuminate. I have been watching the biggest war on this planet unfold for a long time, and there have been many victories, but equal losses. Another scary thing is The Illuminate was able to penetrate through the I.S.'s forces and achieved to plant a nuclear warhead in one of the Aleutian Islands recently, and killed everyone on it. I just don't want that to happen to us. It was starting to get late, because the sun was setting earlier and earlier as winter approached. I started walking back to my house for dinner because my parents would yell at me if I were late again. I was an outcast from the other teens my age that lived near me, because all of them either drank or smoke, and I was determined to never do that in my life. I don't care if I don't fit in, I just want to be who I want to be, and not what some other jackass says I should be. I was nearing my house when I looked at the shiny, yet eerie fallout shelter in my front lawn, that my dad bought for us when we moved here. We used to live in New New York City, because my dad was a stockbroker on Wall Street. He got a big job opportunity in Los Angeles, so we moved here. I didn't want to at first, but I realized that I didn't have a say in the matter, so I kept my mouth shut. As I entered our house, the familiar scent of roasted chicken flowed into my nose, signaling that dinner was almost ready. My dad came in and gave me a stern look. He said "How many times do I have to tell you not to stay out too long, you know that the military here will mistake you for one of those dirty Satanists, and shoot you on the spot!" I replied "Trust me, I wont stay out until it gets dark, just when dinner is almost ready!" He got an angry look and he stared me down. "Don't talk to me like that, son! You know that I don't tolerate that kind of behavior!" he said. I rolled my eyes and walked away to my room. As I entered, I slammed the door to make sure my dad knew I was pissed at him. I could hear my mom arguing with my dad over how to treat me correctly. I lie down in my bed and turn on the holovision. It was on the news channel, midway in explaining how big the royal Ted (instead of turkey) is for this thanksgiving. Then it switched over to a breaking news segment where The Illuminate's dictator was giving a threat to the Imperial States. He said, "Our great nation will not tolerate this preemptive attack. If you do not pull out immediately, we will retaliate with unimaginable force, power that cannot be comprehended!" The terrorism warning level jumped from blue: general risk, to orange: high risk. I was scared at this point because everything was set up for them to attack Los Angeles if they wanted to. Dinner was ready, so I went out of my room, and ate in silence mulling over my worries for our city. My mom asked, "Are you ok, dear?" I replied with "Yea, its just that the terrorism level went from blue to orange today, from a new threat of retaliation by Slackey." My parents looked at each other worryingly. Later that night I was watching holovision in my room, when I came across a live announcement from the mayor saying "I assure you all that there is no immediate threat of any attack on our city, because our borders are cut off, and need searching to enter." He continued, "So I hereby lower the threat level, down to yellow, we are going to be ok!" Knowing that, I fell asleep easily. It was about 4 in the morning when my parents woke me up and told me to get ready to go on a drive to lower Nevada for thanksgiving at my grandparents house. I got packed as I watched holovision shows. At around 5 am, we were out the door and we went to our old wheeled car, we couldn't afford a hover car, in the brisk morning breeze. It was still dark as we got in our car and started to drive to the edge of the city. As we neared the border, we got stopped, and by proper precaution, were asked to step out of our car. As they searched our car, I looked over to the next lane, going in to the city, where a shady looking man was standing, staring down at his feet, next to his truck, which had a septic tank attached to the back. I laughed to myself when the police opened the tank to make sure there weren't any weapons and they looked away in disgust at the filth inside. They said the man was clear to go, so he slightly nodded, and went back in his truck, and drove into town. I still had an odd feeling about him, but didn't give any mind to it. The police said we were clear to go, so we went on our way. Our family laughed and conversed with each other until we reached the border of California. The men checked our car again, and we were clear to go once more. "Were off to Grandma's!" my mom shouted as we got into Nevada. We were about halfway to their house, when we were running low on electricity, so we stopped at a power station. I was watching and listening to the holovision inside the power station mart, while I was outside. There was a droid football game going on so I was into the game. Suddenly a breaking news signal popped up. It was the mayor of Los Angeles saying, "We have confirmed, that there is a terrorist weapon inside the city!" He continues: "We are raising the threat level to red: severe, and imminent risk! Everyone evacuate the city immediately, if possible!" My mouth hung open in surprise and fear. I ran screaming to my parents yelling "The Satanists! The Satanists are here! They're going to kill us all! Why god, Why!!!!" My dad said "Whoa, son, calm down, now tell me what's going on!" I replied "ok, ok… so the mayor of L.A. just went on live news confirming a terrorist attack was imminent, and he said evacuate the city!" My mom said "Oh my god! What will happen to our home!" Suddenly we turned back to the holovision, and we looked as it showed the Satanist who was giving the information that he was in the city and he has a bomb. I then realized in horror, that it was the shady man who was in the other lane with the septic tank. I yelled to my mom, "It's, it's the man, the one who I s-" I was stopped mid sentence by the darkness around us erupting in extremely bright light that made it look as if there was a thousand suns beating down on us during the summer. The temperature rose to a blistering 100 degrees, and I instantly sweated profusely. It was so bright, I shut my eyes, but then I realized I could see through my eyelids and through my hand, so that I saw the bones in my hand. I was gasping in the super heated air that arose around me. I began to scream, as I was confused and scared at the same time. Suddenly the brightness dimmed and it returned to the low light nighttime. I turned back toward the city, and I watched as an enormous fireball engulfed the entire sky in front of my eyes. I flinched as the tires on our car popped and crackled from the sudden rise in temperature. I screamed to my parents, "Oh my god! What is happening! Why do they have to do this to us!" My dad replied with "I don't know, I'm…I'm just, dumbfounded, our house, our friends…why…" Suddenly I was alarmed as I saw a huge wall of dust and debris appear over the horizon. I just started mumbling to myself "Oh, no, oh no, no!" I then screamed to my parents "Ruuuuuuun!" We all turned and started to run away, suddenly the pressure pressing on me jolted and I felt I was being squeezed by an invisible hand. I tried to ignore it, and I kept running. Suddenly, the loudest bang I have ever heard in my life, like a million jets and trains just exploded in my ears. A huge wind then hit me, and I was carried hundreds of feet in the air. I kept flipping over and over on end once I smashed into the ground, and I felt myself losing consciousness, but I fought it back. I knew that it wouldn't be safe to be unconscious in this situation. I finally stopped rolling but there was still 60 mph gusts blowing over my head, so I curled into a ball. I felt the shattered glass from the electric station's mart tearing away my clothes and skin. Although all I can hear is loud ringing, it must be the explosion that did that. After what felt like an eternity, the wind slowed to a mere 5 mph, and I flinched in pain as I tried to get up. Nothing was broken, but I realize that I have sand and debris in my open wounds. I got up, and looked back all I could see for miles is parts of buildings and structures scattered everywhere. Then over the horizon, I gaped at the humongous blue mushroom cloud that filled the entire sky. I looked around for anyone, but no one was there. I realize now that the only way out is to head away from the mushroom cloud. As I started my dazed walk, I found hover cars that were once high in the air, crushed and upside down on the ground. All that was left of trees were a bit of the trunk, and nothing else. I walked for miles until the sun rose, it started getting hot. I finally reached the town where my grandparents lived, Henderson. I looked in the once thriving freshwater pond in my grandparent's front lawn, and saw nothing, not even a drop of water. I looked up at their house, only to lose hope. The entire house has toppled down on itself. Only to bawl at the sight of my dead grandmother, covered in debris and dust. Blood was dribbling down her many open cuts and wounds, oozing into a puddle below her. The once big town, full of skyscrapers and office buildings, was now a pile of rubble. I just sat there, non responsive. I walked over to the rubble of the house, and I found my grandfather's gun. I pointed it into my mouth and pulled the trigger. My brains splat on the ground behind me, and I was in a better place now.
The End