The end.

The Earth is dying. How you may ask? Well one day we all woke up to a cloudy morning. At first no one paid it any attention, cloudy days were not uncommon, it doesn't matter where in the world you were – you have cloudy days. But after a whole week and a half the meteorologists started to run out of explanations and the weather-men had nothing to say to the people.

And then a whole city disappeared…..

"It looks like it has evaporated!" said the news-readers "No-one knows how it happened, investigations continue." Needless to say everyone panicked: "Who would do something like that?" , "How did it happen?" , "Will there be others?"….. questions like that filled the peoples' heads and everyone expressed their opinion on the Internet, the newspapers… any form of social media available. The countries' leaders did all they could to soothe their people and convince them that "all is good", "investigations are ongoing" and "the culprits will be punished". And for a while we believed them…

Until a whole month had passed without the black clouds scattering and pretty soon another two cities were "evaporated". The difference - there was a survivor. A man who was outside the city, hiking, had seen what exactly had happened. The funny thing was that the media only showed him to the people but never let him explain what he had seen. But again no-one noticed. People were convinced that their city is next and wanted to take matters into their own hands: some took to protesting, others formed new movements with the help of different politicians who also wanted an explanation, many formed cults based on one religion or another. But it didn't matter. Deep down everyone was scared for their own lives and greedy for the spoils they'd get if their perception was viewed as "the right one". But let's be honest if it ever came to an apocalypse scenario the only course of action people would take, the only reliable religion would be: 'every man for himself'.

Weeks passed and new cities disappeared, and the giant clouds were only growing thicker and darker and the air felt different, hotter, even the trees didn't look the same anymore. Many people started to think that aliens were taking over the earth and urged their governments to take action, but you can't fight what you can't see, or understand for that matter. Everything necessary was done to calm the public down but to no avail, fear was stronger than reason. But there was one thing people wanted to know more than anything – who was causing this and why?

After three months we got our answer.

Another city was attacked, a capital this time, a day later there was a woman who appeared on the news. What was interesting was that she was on every channel, radio, phone, computer and no one could turn them off, she wanted to be heard. So, even though reluctantly, we listened:

"People of the world, as you have already found out this message cannot be ignored, so we ask you to listen to what we have to say. My name is Anita and I am one of the many people responsible for the world's current situation. Why we did what we did I will tell you later, but first let me explain what exactly is happening. The clouds you see are not just over your town, they have engulfed the whole world, they have not dispersed because they are being held in the Earth's lower atmosphere by a spherical shield made of what appears to be solid oxygen. Said sphere is preventing anything from coming in and out of the planet. Why is this happening ? Because our planet is poisoned…. by us. We're the reason this paradise is collapsing, and now it's time for us to pay.

The cities that were destroyed, were the most polluted ones in the world, they were taken care of by a weapon, built especially for extreme times, times of war, when there was no other way of 'pacifying' the participants. Don't you think that's a little unfair? Killing millions for the sake of everyone else, when a peaceful conclusion can be reached! I need you to understand, this weapon was built on the orders of the world's greatest leaders, one sunny day they all got together and decided that if a part of the world didn't agree with them, they'd just kill it, wipe it out, and use the media to make it look like a tragedy caused by the victims themselves. Perhaps one of their bombs exploded at the wrong moment, maybe a fusion reactor blew up, whatever the head office wants you ALL to believe, as long as they seem innocent in your eyes. NEVER TRUST THE MEDIA. Not unless YOU have SOLID proof to back the statement. "

Now at this point everyone was pissing their pants. Fear didn't even begin to cover what we felt. When we thought back a few moths, we noticed that the animals were slowly dying out. Needless to say we all though we were dead men.

"But- started Anita- the shield in the atmosphere is not our responsibility, no-one's actually. We believe that it's a part of Earth's evolution, just like a human body, when infected, it warms up so that the virus is exterminated. Global warming was the first try. While it worked in the extermination part, it was slowly killing parts of the planet and not the actual threat – us, so our beloved Earth took things up a notch, it decided to cook us alive, this time faster. I doubt you need to be a scientist to see the reality: the air is hotter, wherever we go it feels stuffier than normal, and going outside for a "breath of fresh air" isn't working anymore. Our planet got sick of us chopping it to shreds, and draining it for our needs. So it decided to do away with us, after all we're mere specks of dust compared to what it has endured, but unlike other specks of dust, we overstepped our boundaries way too much, and now it's pay time. Even destroying the most polluted cities couldn't save us."

Suddenly all the memes of Mother nature embracing humanity and whispering in it's ear that no-one would miss it, that it was but a tiny spot on Earth's enormous chronicle, started to make so much sense, we really were nothing.

"Regrettably, our planet is destroying quite a big chunk of itself it he process, about a third. But after we are gone for good, life may start anew, and this time learn from the past. We believe that an 'apocalypse' such as this one has happened before, after all where does all our lore come from. We can never learn, that is humanity's curse, we build, we expand but in the end it's all for naught….

Well by the calculations of the few scientists, still loyal to the public, we have about three or so more months of life on our planet, mainly because the solid-oxygen-shield took quite a lot to assemble itself, and has fully enclosed Earth mere days ago, another thing that was kept from us.

Well that's all I had to tell you, believe me or not – it's your problem, but please do not turn this into a crazy survival movie scene and start to kill each other, we'll be dead pretty soon. So enjoy your last months on Earth, and don't overthink everything, it doesn't take a genius to tell we were asking for it. Good day to you all."

And with that she disappeared. No more messages followed, no more warnings, everyone was panicking, trying to find a way to survive, to make a difference, but it was too late now.

As for me, I'm just counting the days till the end. The clouds started in the middle of June, the big message, as it is now called, was in September so that would make the End somewhere in December, hmm, I hope it's not on Christmas, or New Year's eve, it would be too depressing. It's November 29th today, not much time left, half the people in my city are already dead – died in their sleep, at least Earth made it painless. What is happening with the rest of the world I cannot tell you, and even if I could I doubt in would matter, all that matters now is that the trees are dying, their bark turning ever more black and their leaves are now a deep shade of purple. There are no more birds singing in the woods, and barely any other animal can steadily walk around on its own.

I take a look around the dozens of slowly dying trees and realize that even half-dead our planet is still has a certain beauty to it, shame on us for doing what we did, so wrapped up in our own little worlds we never stopped to enjoy the beauty around us while in it's prime. I can only hope that our successors, if there are any, will be able to appreciate what we failed to even notice.

I have to go now, the air is getting thinner and I am getting sleepy, perhaps it is my turn….