Three weeks prior
Mercedes
"Are we actually supposed to stay indoors-"
"For the rest of the day?" Puck finished, and sounded completely outraged about it.
I thought my parents would assume that we were joking when we came into the house and told them what we were told. But the looks on their faces confirmed it to be true.
At first, when Quinn and I were approached by a police-like officer, we exchanged uncertain looks.
He was wearing a fitted, fluorescent jacket, which looked as if it was lined on the inside with steel. He wore grey cargo pants tucked into tough leather boots.
On the far side of the road, a police car pulled up. Our area wasn't really a bad one in terms of crime, so I knew whatever this situation was; it was something new and unusual.
Two more officers stepped out of the car, allowing a few people to step out; my adopted brother, Puck, and our neighbour with her daughter.
Puck was about to stroll towards the house when the tallest one of the two carefully held him back by his shoulder.
As our officer paused a few feet away, he turned to his colleagues and gave one sharp nod. That was when I noticed the rifle tucked into his belt. "Girls, there's been an order issued by Government Security. I'm Officer Karofsky." He flipped open a badge to prove his official status. "Everyone has been instructed to stay indoors until further notice." My heart rate quickened.
Quinn spoke up. "Can I ask why?"
"You can, but you will be better informed about this routine once you return to your household. If you're not local to this area, then an officer such as myself will transport you to where you currently reside."
"We live just down this road," I finally managed to say.
"Good. Will you need me to escort you?"
I heard her sarcastic comment before she even said a word, so I gently squeezed her elbow to stop her from talking. "My brother just got dropped off by your colleague, so we'll be alright."
"Good, then I suggest you go now."
"Yes, sir." I pulled Quinn along by her arm.
"I don't want to worry either of you," he called as we passed him into the road, "but just don't waste any time right now." We continued to cross over to the police car, while casting glances back toward Officer Karofsky. He gave an awkward wave before walking away.
Puck's eyebrows pulled down when he saw us approaching, just as the woman shuffled herself and her daughter to their house. "You okay, Cedes?"
"Yes," I answered, shrugging his arm away.
"Why did you just get dropped off by the police?" Quinn couldn't help but ask.
"I wasn't in my 'local area', so they had to- "
"You all need to be indoors right now. You were just instructed to not waste any time.
"We were -"
"This is a matter of urgency." The taller officer stated.
Without another word, I pulled Quinn along with me; her house wasn't far from ours.
Puck strode behind us, ignoring Quinn as usual.
"Okay, isn't this a little bit weird?"
I had to agree with Quinn.
"Who's to say this isn't just a joke?"
"Um, it's probably not, Puck." I looked in the direction Quinn had pointed towards, where several more police cars turned onto the street, where a small crowd of people were walking home in a verge of panic.
That was when I thought to myself, well, maybe there was something for me to be scared about.
"I'll walk you home, Quinn," I offered.
"You don't-"
"Or Puck could walk you."
"What?" He objected, already refusing the idea.
"It's fine, my mom's about to walk right over here."
Puck muttered something under his breath, but I couldn't care less about what it was.
Quinn hesitantly kissed him on the cheek, saying goodbye, before he pushed open the gate to the path leading to the house. "Hope you'll be okay," he called back.
"Depending on what's going on, I'll see you later?" She asked.
"You got it." She hurried home. We had only run into each other ten minutes ago. Just as we were about to say our awkward goodbyes, the officer had approached us.
I followed Puck into our house.
After he let us in, we saw our parents in the living room. Dad was already standing in front of the television when we entered, and Mom slowly got to her feet as both Puck and I asked if this situation was as serious as it sounded.
"What is going on?" I asked, hoping someone had an answer.
My dad just frowned at the TV screen, and then I realised, as he flicked from channel to channel, the same message was displayed in bold white capitals on each one:
'A VERY URGENT ANNOUNCEMENT WILL BE MADE AT 16:00 ON CHANNEL ONE. YOUR TELEVISION WILL AUTOMATICALLY SWITCH TO THIS STATION AT APPROXIMATELY 15:50'
The clock read 3.36pm, and some channels had already frozen to their default screen. "What is this about?" My mom wondered.
"We'll soon find out. Anyway, did you feed yourselves when you were out?" This was my dad's form of distraction - focusing his attention on the rest of us.
Puck quietly admitted that he didn't get the chance to eat. "Come and show me what you want," Mom suggested, taking his arm to head towards the kitchen.
I leaned towards my dad to swipe the remote from his hand and switched to Channel One, wondering what they would play before this emergency statement. There was live coverage of officers marching or standing guard on the street.
Even the homeless were being brought to community centres to watch the news on large screens.
The newsreader attempted to get on with other news, despite the broadcasted message on the screen taking away my attention.
Puck came out with his plate of food.
3.50pm came about in a blur, and I measured it by the amount of bites Puck had of his meal, by the number of times my mom left her seat to find some trivial task to do about the house. I measured it to the sound of my dad grinding his teeth.
Then Sue Sylvester confirmed that all TV screens will now be displaying Channel One, and that we will be notified when the other channels will be unfrozen.
I noticed how my brother wasn't even considering finishing his chicken salad and garlic bread, so I complained that I wanted to eat something and he offered his plate to me.
By the time I swallowed down the final bites, and braided the tassels on the throw-over, 4pm had finally arrived.
How is Sam feeling at the moment? Is he sitting with his sister on his lap, staring at the screen?
Is he texting Quinn, rather than me?
Was he thinking of me?
My stomach growled quietly with the unexpected delivery of food but my heart began to race again at the thought of Sam.
When this urgent report began, I instantly knew it wasn't good - Sue's facial expression was a mask of professionalism.
The only bit she gave away was that each leader across the world was going to address his or her own country. When our president's tired face came on, my heart was either beating too fast for me to feel it, or it had stumbled off its rhythm altogether.
Sam
One month.
That's all we have. Our US president repeated this a few times, like we wouldn't have heard him the first time.
Well, I didn't believe it.
It was the NASA people, the geologists, the astronomers, the physicists, the government guys - it was all of them who confirmed it, and made it all real. My mom had frozen in her seat, covering her nose and mouth with praying hands. I tuned back in when the president appeared again.
People of the most important, scientific professionals were involved in a classified operation for several years now.
Unsuccessfully, they attempted to 'destroy, de-path or eliminate the catastrophic impact of an island-sized asteroid', on direct course with Earth.
Cliché, I had thought, before realising I was watching the news, and it was late June, so I couldn't even pass it off as a poor April Fool's Day prank.
After the many failed missions they deployed, there was no longer any chance of stopping it, and the only fraction of hope lied in the slight possibility that some part of the Earth would remain. I stopped listening there, to smother my face with my hands after my little sister, Stacy, slid off my lap and ran into my mother's arms.
It wasn't the statements themselves that had me quietly crying, it was the sadness on their faces, the water in all of these professional eyes as they desperately tried to keep it together.
Things became muffled around me, like I was far away from here.
I lifted my head from my hands, and saw my mother sobbing into Stacy's hair. Stevie, my little brother, sat open-mouthed and sat at their feet. My dad was kneading his knuckles into his palm over and over again.
The first person who took over my initial shock wasn't any of my family, because they were right there with me. It wasn't Mercedes, the girl I had loved since forever. It was my reluctant girlfriend, Quinn. Our relationship was a sham – she lusted after Mercedes' adopted brother, Puck, anyway. Yet neither one of us ever thought to just end it.
My mind went blank, like it was sucked into a black hole and I was lost.
The only thought pounding in my head was: we're all going to die, and there's nothing to do about it.
Freezing cold water was splashed into my face.
"Stevie! I said sprinkle it, not drown him in it!"
"Sorry, Dad" he mumbled.
"Why did you do that?" Even to me, my voice sounded as if it belonged to a cold stranger.
"Y-you were frozen for like, twenty minutes." I wiped my face with my sleeve, and brushed the heavy drops of water from my hair.
"Kind of scaring us there, son. You weren't speaking or anything," he said, gripping Stevie's shoulders. "You okay?"
Continuing to wring my hair, I looked up at him. "Is the world still ending?"
Stevie wrenched himself out of my dad's grasp and ran into the kitchen.
"I had just calmed him down," but he didn't sound angry. He sat down next to me on the couch. "I can't believe this is happening either, Sam."
My voice was thick, but I wouldn't let myself be weak when my family needed me to be strong for them, like always. "Where's Mom and Stacy?"
"Mom's talking to your aunt, and Stacy hasn't let go of her since. And now Stevie's with them."
I nodded my head, bouncing my knee to keep some part of me awake. "Why is this happening?"
"I couldn't even ask God why this is happening."
"W...what do we do, Dad? I mean – what do we do? What can we do?"
He made this sound – part sob, part chuckle and part sigh. "Forgive my language, son – we just have to make the fucking most of it."
I didn't know how I managed to smile, but I did. I was terrified of what was coming, obviously, and scared about how the world would react, but so what?
I was sort of...content. The end of the world was only weeks away, I couldn't do anything about it and all I wanted to do was...I didn't want to cry or be sad or be destructive; not right now. It felt as if a colossal weight had been lifted from my shoulders, somehow.
Right on cue, Mercedes called, and my heart unexpectedly jumped.
Mercedes
I couldn't even speak. Tears were streaming down my face.
I think part of the reason I was crying was because, after the devastating announcement that the world was ending, the first person I called was not Shane, my boyfriend for nearly six months. It was Sam, my best friend, and lover in my own fantasies.
Neither one of us spoke for a moment. I didn't know how to react or how I should react.
"Speak, Ma Sweet." His private nickname for me, said in his well-executed Southern accent, jolted me out of my reverie.
"S-Sam."
"Yeah, it's Sam. Sam I Am."
"How can you joke?"
He sighed heavily down the phone. "Will you stop crying?"
"I'm not."
"Stop not crying, then." This short exchange happened every single time I was upset. Things never changed between us.
"I can't believe this, Sam," I said, after clearing my throat.
"I know."
"What do we do? I mean – won't the world go, like, insane?"
"Probably. We can either join it -"
"Or do our own thing?"
He sighed again. "Exactly."
"Our relatives have not stopped calling us. They keep saying prayers over the phone to each other and reciting Bible passages -"
"You just rolled your eyes, didn't you?"
"Damn right I did. Anyways, my dad's been all over the internet, trying to find as many articles as he can. He can't believe it. Then the internet crashed because everyone must be on it right now."
"Damn. How's Puck?"
"Up in his room, yelling and breaking stuff."
"And what about you?" Worry was thick in his voice.
"How am I supposed to be, Sam? How are you?"
"Cedes, I just wanna make the best out of the rest of our lives; 'dif-tor heh smusma.'"
I've heard him say that Star Wars phrase so many times that I knew what it meant without having to ask: live long and prosper. "That's kind of redundant, don't you think?" I said drily, but he chuckled in response. "Why aren't you terrified like...a normal person?"
"We have four whole weeks to be scared for something that can't be helped. I plan to schedule some epic freak-out-ness during the final week." I couldn't help but giggle. Hearing me laugh, he added "maybe, if the mood is right, I'll schedule a mini panic attack next Thursday night. Would you like to partake?"
After I stopped laughing, with a very giddy and anxious feeling in my stomach, I said "yeah, if I have any panic left in me by then. Seriously, Sam, where do we start?"
He was silent for a moment. "We start tomorrow - a party!"
"Are you insane?"
"Of course. I think we should throw a huge party with loads of food, loads of alcohol and loads of music."
Sam's excitement was completely catching. "We could sing songs, too."
"Totally. Where though?"
"Sounds like it's gonna have to be a 'no permission necessary' thing. I bet someone's parents would allow it but it feels inappropriate to ask."
"No time for that. Who's gonna come anyway? I mean...obviously gotta invite Quinn-"
"And Shane," I added. "Hell, we should invite everyone. Start a Facebook group and everything. Everyone from school, all our own friends. Just make it a massive rave."
"I'm with you, Cedes, but where?"
"You know what else this sounds like? An outside thing. What about the small woods, around the corner from school?"
"The weather has been pretty decent."
"And maybe God will bless us with a sunny day tomorrow."
"Amen." He paused for a second, and I heard a couple of clicks. "Yes, Ma Sweet, that's perfect. In the picnic area? Trying to check the weather for tomorrow."
I said the one very relevant thing that could eradicate all the doubts and reservations in the world. "Who cares about the weather anymore?"
"See, I actually don't want to have hyperthermia for the rest of my short life."
"From what?"
"If it's too cold outside."
I loved correcting him – because he never got annoyed about it, he always encouraged me to tell him the right thing. "You'd get hypothermia, in that case."
"That's what I meant."
"It's not gonna be that cold anyway. It was nice today, tomorrow should be-"
"God."
"What, Sam?"
Then he started laughing, hysterically. I'd have joined in, just because I loved the way he laughed, but I was kind of worried.
"The world is ending, and we're talking about the weather. We officially suck."
That was definitely a reason to smile. "Okay, mister, we're having this party tomorrow, from eight 'o' clock onwards. In the woods by the school? We'll map it out."
"And even if only the two of us turn up, it'll still be amazingly epic. You feed me, I feed you. We'll get drunk together."
"So true." A pang of guilt hit my stomach – I needed to care if Shane would be there or not. "Sounds great. So everyone brings food?"
"Or a bottle."
"Puck's got these scarily loud amplifiers, if we hook that up to someone's laptop..."
"Then we got a party, baby."
"I can't believe we're doing this. Like...damn."
"You only live once."
I rolled my eyes. "So cliché, Evans."
"Yeah, well-" My phone was beeping. When I pulled the phone away, with a guilty feeling inside, I saw that Shane was trying to call me. "Sam, you spoken to Quinn yet?"
Without even hesitating, he said "you were the first to call me, Cedes," he said, in a knowing voice. "What about Shane?"
I was an awful person - the worst. I was the one who had placed the call, and it wasn't to my boyfriend.
"We've been friends longer than we've been in relationships. It's understandable," he reassured me.
"I guess." The beeping sound continued. "Sam, I gotta go. But I'm gonna set up this Facebook group-"
"Not before I do."
"Ugh, fine. I'll ask Puck about the music situation. And I'll send out a few texts for people to bring stuff."
"Sounds like a plan, Ma Sweet."
"Talk to you later?"
"Yeah."
Sam
I wasn't feeling scared or excited right now. I felt devastated, like something had wrapped around my heart and was yanking it up into my throat.
I sat there, in silence, with my phone in hand. Then I texted Quinn, because I was always concerned about her, despite my mixed feelings.
Q are u ok? This is ker-razy, huh? I simply didn't know what else to say to her.
Throwing my phone down onto the couch as I waited for her reply, I sought out my mom.
She was alone in the kitchen, idly wiping down the counter.
"Mom, are you okay?" She looked at me through red, puffy eyes and fresh tears spilled down her cheeks.
I opened my arms to her, and she ran into them, crying against my shoulder.
Tears swelled in my eyes too. I didn't know what to say to her. She was my mother, how could I comfort her when there was nothing good to be said?
I mean, I had my family, and I had my friends. I suppose I had Quinn, but Mercedes was there for me, which was most important. I'm still young, so that meant I had a reason to party and drink and be depressed when I needed to be.
Mom, however, had children. I couldn't imagine knowing that my children were going to die, and there being absolutely nothing I could do to protect them. So I held her, and allowed her to cry out her weakness into my dampening t-shirt.
Finally, as her breathing began to level out, I said the only thing that I thought could bring my mom back to her real self. "So - we're throwing this awesome rave tomorrow night. Wanna come?"