Poker

No one thought the fate of the universe would come down to a game of poker.

“Stupid humans” Maddie thought to herself as she looked at her hand. No pairs of anything, no full houses, no straights, she was screwed.

Maddie had been chosen to play the game for the fate of the universe because she had a long history of conning,scheming, and was the best poker player in The United Coalition of Planet Earth and… this seemed like a pretty good way to work off her prison sentence. The all-knowing governments that were had settled on poker because it seemed a more civil way to wage war as opposed to sending soldiers onto battlefields like in the days of old, but Maddie would say sending her to her own death wasn’t much better.

Now Maddie wasn’t exactly selfish per say but rather was of the opinion that the needs of the one simply outweighed the needs of the many. The many being her fellow greedy, ungrateful humans who were the whole reason Maddue was up there playing for the fate of the world. In fact, the more Maddie thought about it the more Maddie wondered why she should even bother trying to help after all what had humanity ever done for her.

The officials who sent Maddie up here, what were they really? A bunch of greedy politicians who had who knows how many cases for money laundering, tax evasion, and goodness only knows what else just like the politicians before and just like the ones that’ll come after them. Who would Maddie help if she saved them? The poor those pigs never give money to or their fellow rich friends and their precious tax breaks? Was it even worth it putting her life on the line like this. As she pondered this Maddie called the current bet, even with her poor cards and went into the second round thinking of all the people on earth.

And what about Maddie’s so-called parents the ones who only ever paid attention to teach her about the family business, the same one that drove her to her life of crime once she go tired of it. The ones who on Holiday(the United Coalition of Planet Earth designated one day as Holiday to replace Christmas to cut down on arguments about religion) morning were teaching her the intricacies of hiring and firing employees while other kids were playing on their hover-bikes.

And what about all those CEO’s who supposedly cared about the environment but the moment caring became too financially taxing they were ready to return to polluting the oceans, killing the trees, and become the reason all the people of Earth had to live in biodomes as though life was a Bradbury story.

Perhaps the greatest gift she could give the planet was a giant reset, end it all for all those greedy destructive liars and give it over to these seemingly nice aliens, AND if it just happened to preserve her life well maybe it wasn’t so bad.

After all was it really that evil if you’re getting rid of horrible people for a good cause Maddie thought to herself. In fact at what point did survival and self-preservation cross the line into cruelty. After all, was it really morally wrong when Maddie thought of all those greedy humans had done, what even makes them worth saving Maddie pondered as she called the bet yet again. Maddie was bluffing, she knew it, the aliens knew it and in a few moments Maddue would be dead unless…

“Hey Mr.Alien care to cut a deal?” Maddie asked.

Two days later

Maddie watched as the Earth was being ingulfled in flames and said to herself, “Welp, I did save the universe… from all of y’all down there.”