After the World Ends

I can tell you what happened after the world ends but not the before, not what caused it. I’m not sure if anyone can tell you what actually caused the world to end; whether it was some global government experiment gone awry, radioactive solar flares, or if Mother Earth just got sick of our shit and decided to kill off the human race. I was just a child when it happened, so I don't recall much. I do remember there was screaming though, so much screaming and so, so much blood.

The only thing I know for certain about the end is that billions of people, died. They died horrifically ugly, tragic deaths. And they took the world with them.

I've heard hundreds, if not thousands, of stories about how people died in the end. One boy told me his mother went into seizure and then split right in two. You may need to take that one with a grain of salt, being that we were children when he told me. We became a bit apathetic to the deaths of our friends and family, but, they were human.

I remember my parents deaths. My dad died screaming. He clutched at his head, blood suddenly poured from his face, and he screamed. He screamed forever, or maybe only for a few moments, and then, gone. My mom was worse. She just started laughing and laughing, this crazed and maniacal laughter. She was still laughing when she gouged out her own eyes. I remember that I used to think she had such a beautiful laugh.

There were enough humans left after the end that society tried to piece itself back together. A few of the countries even tried to go to war, each blaming the other for the world’s end. The riots and mass suicides put an end to that. But the power grids kept producing electricity, the cars still ran, even the internet stayed up for a while. It was when the mutations showed up that the humans finally seemed to just quit and go feral.

The mutations started quite mild, with people’s hair changing to silver and gold, their eyes turned green, some developed small catlike fangs. Other mutations were a bit more radical, with some people developing extra appendages like wings and tails, even horns. The strangest ones were the people who went reptilian-like in their mutations and completely forgot how to human.

I think it was when some of the plant life became sentient and started killing humans that was the last straw. I will tell you that they may be sentient and they’re dangerous if you get too near them, but they aren’t super bright. And if you raise them right, they are perfectly happy eating whatever or whoever you want to feed them. Just ask my rose bushes in the back garden of my cottage. They like a protein heavy diet.

My gran brought us here, to the cottage and surrounding village, high in the mountains. It was just supposed to be a resting place as she ran, from the cities, the riots, the death. But she had collected so many stray littles and young people along the way that she knew she couldn’t keep running. She felt she’d gotten far enough away, especially since it seemed so remote and off grid. Safe.

And it was, for years. Our little community of strays soon grew, and grew again. Sometimes we’d go on runs to see if we could find more strays. Sometimes we were successful, sometimes not. As the years past, we got more bold and daring. We went closer to where the cities used to be. That’s when we found that the humans were doing the same thing, only instead of saving, they were killing. Still. Trying to purge the world of the things mankind had become.

I thought we had gotten away from them, that they wouldn’t follow us into the woods, until I heard screams coming from the village late one night. The humans had found us.

There was fire everywhere, people running, screaming, trying to get away. Most of us were scavengers and hunters, not fighters. So we ran, and hid, till the fires burnt out. We returned to the village with the morning light to find so many of our brothers and sisters dead. I found my gran’s body covering a young, silver haired child, about the same age I was when she saved me. The child was miraculously alive, but my gran was not.

That was several months ago and I have been hunting the murderers ever since. I take a deep breath of the afternoon air and play with my gran's heart shaped locket dangling from my neck. I smell them, the humans, and my wings quiver with anticipation. I can tell you what happened after the world ends: I became an angel, and now I’m the angel of death.