Brittnay Laster

Broken Seals

Nuclear war. It had been feared for centuries since the first bomb was dropped in 1945. However, as technology continued to advance, and tensions were stretched like rubber bands over a watermelon, it was created. Jokingly called Armageddon by its creator, the nuclear bomb created in the US was the strongest ever made, and that would ever be made. No one knows, or remembers, what happened to make the President launch Armageddon upon the East. Not the eastern countries, but the Eastern United States. Survivors along the Western border immediately tried to send in rescue teams. However, the bomb had completely decimated the eastern side of the country. Washington DC was a crater three miles deep into the crust where the bomb had been detonated right over the capital. Unknown to survivors, the same thing had happened in all nuclear-capable countries. Conspiracies of government “suicide” pacts rose up. The next morning, almost as if a cosmic being was playing a joke on the destroyed civilization, the being later named War rose from the crater left by Armageddon. No one knew if it was truly one of the Christian horsemen, but it seemed only fitting to name it that. Where it walked, brother turned on brother and the despairing cries of survivors were met with silence. Over the next year, the three other horsemen made their appearance, each disappearing months after ravaging what was left of the United States. Famine arose in the desert of California. Where it tread, any plant life died. Animals fled, leaving humans desperate and on the edge of starvation. Pestilence arose in Washington. Where it appeared, thousands died and many more became lifeless zombies supported by the ones around them that still harbored humanity in their souls. Finally, last among the beings was Death. This one was different. It appeared in towns full of survivors slowly dying or going mad and gave death as a mercy. If a survivor fought against death still, refusing to give up, they were left to continue fighting. Death only took the willing and only death remained after the other horsemen had left.