The Eruption of All Time

It was 3 am in the morning on a Thursday night in summer and the soft hum of the clothes dryer droned in the background. Molly sat at her desk pondering life prior to the eruption at Yellow Stone Park. Several days following the eruptions, universal forces began to descend on the earth in droves. Just a couple of months prior to the world changing as everyone knew it, her sister visited to assist with her son's DUI court date. Molly could not take the day off to drive him to court so her sister drove five hundred miles to visit and take him on his court date.

At fifty four years old, Molly stayed single after three failed marriages and lived in an east coast townhouse with her thirty year old bi-polar, alcoholic son Brandon. Brandon was a sweet guy on his good, balanced days, but on the manic or depressive days he was an angry judge of all of humanity and to some extent to her.

He checked into rehab for thirty days in 2015 and made great progress. He just always seemed to self sabotage right at the moment he had it all together and life was about to take off. In Brandon's high school years, he denounced all alcohol and drugs. He had a bright future ahead of him as an excellent athlete and an A student. Everyone who knew him loved him. He was enrolled in an architectural program in high school and had a tremendously analytical, engineering mind. He did not touched alcohol until he was eighteen years old. When he did finally touch it, it became the battle of his life for the next ten years. Molly did her best to be a father and a mother to him, but at times she was at a loss.

Molly spent the majority of her life working her way up in the technology world and self educating to push ahead for a better life for her children. At times, she wondered if all of the sacrifice had been worth it. She had a similar experience with her older daughter but around thirty years old, Amy woke up and realized that she wanted a better life. For awhile, the family drama subsided and she was able to enjoy a brief window of freedom and happiness.

But just as surely as Molly thought her life was moving forward, she went through a second wave with Brandon. In the past couple of months, she wondered if she was ever going to have a life of her own and could things get any worse? She had no clue what was on the horizon nor that it could possibly get worse.

The week her sister visited, they went to dinner, had fantastic talks, and shared secrets that sisters share. Before she left, Dani presented her with a beautiful sterling silver, heart-shaped locket containing a photo of the two of them together as children. Dani was encouraging and understanding. Molly felt a sense of stability and peace with her. Her sister had a similar experience with her younger son a few years earlier. She understood the heartache of a single mother trying to be all to a son growing up without a father. She also knew how to bring the heart felt laughs that Molly needed during that time.

When the news reported that the Yellow Stone Park volcano had finally erupted, Molly couldn't believe it. She read about the possibility but no one ever thought it would happen so quickly. Prior to the Yellowstone eruption, she was randomly interest in the military declassification of UFO research and information. In her mind, the mysteries of the universe were unfolding. We were just learning and understanding more. No science fiction novel or movie could prepare her or others for what was about to come that summer.

As the days unfolded after the Yellowstone eruption, half of the United States was destroyed. Ash billowed across what remained of the country and around the world. Families were lost, lands and wild life destroyed. The world watched in grave horror as later thousands of extraterrestrial beings descended upon the earth just days later. The volcanic eruption peaked their interest and drew them to investigate the chaos. Meanwhile, people scrambled to stock up and to stay indoors out of view.

Brandon and Molly were already stocked with a year's supply of food and supplies. With no basement for storage, they stocked the garage, mud room, and nearly every available space in closets and corners around the house. The economy tanked in the prior year's pandemic, so Molly stocked every pay day.

She hated the panic crowd who cleared the grocery and supply store shelves at once. It was disgusting to her. When the news reported the Yellowstone volcano eruptions, they purchased a generator, bought additional medical masks, and acquired other survival tools. They sealed the townhouse as much as practically possible. Living on the east coast in a tiny town helped a bit. It bought them some time.

Molly's medical technology job was still in tact. She still received salary at this point. But as she sat at her desk pondering her life and what was happening, she couldn't help but wonder how long THAT would last. When it stopped, what would they do? It was just a matter of time before it impacted them. How long would it be before these extraterrestrial beings descended on their town?

Brandon and Molly would sit for hours and discuss survival strategies but by the end of every conversation, there would come a heavy silence as the reality hit that human survival tactics would likely not work with extraterrestrials. Molly would grew reminiscent and sad about her family.

Molly stared at her computer screen, playing with the locket around her neck. She thought fondly of her sister's visit, wondering if they would ever see each other again. Her sister and parents lived in Tennessee near an underground military defense compound while her daughter lived in Alabama. Molly's youngest sister dated one of the military personnel that worked in a military defense plant. He arranged to house her parents in the military compound located under a mountain state park.

Molly's daughter lived in a rural split level home in Birmingham, Alabama. The house was fairly shielded by woods and near a major airport. At the time of the explosion, flights were canceled and planes grounded. In the past several days, there had been quite a few extraterrestrial craft landings in the Birmingham area with reports of people disappearing or found deceased with no identifiable cause, as well as animals.

A thick fallout from the volcanic eruption settled quickly in Alabama but Molly's daughter had access to medical supplies, equipment, and masks. Amy worked for the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the surgical ward and had been stocking supplies and masks since the pandemic. She also had a large basement with stocked food and home supplies. It was frustrating to Molly that she could not get to her because of the road closures and shut downs across the nation once the park exploded. Her heart ached for her daughter and she worried constantly.

Molly gazed out of the window wishing to see the starry night and full moon. She dreamed of past better days when the world was calm, skies were brighter, and stressors were fewer. She dreamed of the seventies when she was a child, riding her bike freely in the neighborhood with the only care being a scraped knee from a bicycle fall. Now, children could not leave their homes for fear of abduction or respiratory illness.

Work was the only consistency left in Molly's life. Her other consistency was her lover of four years who passed six months into the COVID-19 pandemic. Their love affair was filled with companionship and respect. It was a once in a lifetime kind of love that she didn't care to replace. Those four years made up for the life time of failed relationships.

Molly's desk sat one foot from her bed. Most days she rolled out of bed, put on a sweat shirt, and logged in for work. Afterward, she would have dinner with Brandon and talk for a few hours before retiring to their respective rooms for the night. Some nights, Molly went to bed early. On other nights, she would lie awake and get up to occupy her worried mind. Brandon's bi-polar mania started to kick in beginning with the eruption and Molly had to practically force him to take his medication. Now she was concerned with accessibility to the medication and what this would mean for him if he ran out.

On Friday evening, around seven o'clock Brandon yelled downstairs for Molly to come quickly. From his window, they could see the skies darkening with thick ash as the clouds rolled over the town. Far in the distance they could see a row of rapidly approaching craft with rotating lights ascending and descending, shooting to the side, and then back again. They watched in horror as a line of twenty craft approached the neighborhood and begin to descend from the blackening sky.

Molly called her daughter to tell her she loved her but there was no answer. She sent a text. She did the same to all of her family. No replies. The lights in the house began to flicker and dim, and finally go completely dark despite the generator hook up, Brandon put his arm around Molly and softly said “I love you Mom. We've got this. Be strong.” Molly could hear the tension and fear in Brandon's voice as he clutched her tightly. Molly said, “I love you too son. We do have this.” They stood staring out of the window in fear.

The craft doors opened and they watched more than fifty beings exit each craft. Their bodies were lean and tall, unlike the cliché description of alien beings. Their facial features were distorted but the eyes were reminiscent of the eyes we all read about in science fiction novels. Two of them approached the townhouse. Molly and Brandon were suddenly paralyzed and frozen in time. They could barely breathe.

One of the beings levitated up to the second story window and placed his hand on the glass. Molly stared into its dark eyes and her body began to relax. An eerie calmness flowed through Molly and Brandon. This being reached through the glass window pane as if it were a clear liquid. Molly felt its hand brush across her face. The hand was cold with the feel and smell of leather.

The creature then brushed its hand across Brandon's face. Molly felt the instinctive mother fear and protection well up in her. When Molly lunged at the creature, it retracted its hand back through the window pane. The creature continued to stare into Molly's eyes. A loud searing sound began to ring in Molly's ears. In one split second, she no longer felt Brandon's arm around her. She turned to look at Brandon and he was gone. A sense of dread moved through her mind and body. Panic set in. Molly turned back to the window. To her horror, Brandon was outside levitating next to the creature. He stared back at her with fearful, helpless eyes. As Molly met Brandon's eyes with hers, she was instantly pulled through the glass pane too.

Both of them felt helpless and terrified. Molly felt Brandon's hand wrap around hers as she clutched the locket with her other hand. With a sense of surrender and finality, they looked at each other one last time as the sky grew darker and final blackness engulfed them. Life on earth was over all too soon for Molly and Brandon. In fact, life on earth as human's once knew it had ended.