The Last Moment On Earth

The Last Moment on Earth

The rugged, weather-beaten US military jeep tore through the barren hills outside the city of Diyarbakir, as the world began to end. Jeremiah Stone peered out of the passenger seats window at the passing landscape. Desert sands whipped around the jeep and clumps of dirt thumped relentlessly against the vehicles sides. Outside, the roar of the winds was deafening. Stone hastily hoisted up his window, ears ringing. He slumped back into the seat. Sitting back, his eyes glazed over as his mind left the present moment for the haunted depths of the past.

Jeremiah Stone had spent the last 20 years serving in the US army as a Marine. He had fought countless wars in his two decade long career and received many medals. He had toured Ukraine in 2025, Ethiopia in ’29, Iraq in ’34 and currently he was fighting in the hills of the newly formed Republic of Kurdistan. But he wouldn’t be fighting for much longer. In fact nobody would be fighting come tomorrow morn.

Stone stared up at the sky as a gargantuan asteroid, as large as the Rocky Mountain Range, slowly fell towards planet earth. The asteroid was as old as the universe itself. It weighted over 500 billion tons and its surface glared like the light of a thousand suns as it plummeted down. NASA scientists had discovered the asteroid but 7 months ago. They had spent day and night studying its orbital course. And after 3 months of calculations, their instruments had determined that the meteors trajectory would place its impact point in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean. When the meteor hit, no one would survive.

Abruptly, the jeep came to a grinding halt, nearly tossing Stone out of his seat. As the dust cleared before the vehicle, the landscape revealed a lone hill standing upon the white sand.

To the average onlooker, the hill, along with the valley below it, would appear to be nothing special. It had no memorable landmarks, nor cultural or historical importance whatsoever. In fact the valley looked like all the other valleys in the land: a featureless, god-forsaken waste whose only feature worthy of notice was a small huddled mass of dry vegetation and desert life.

But to Jeremiah Stone this hill meant the world to him. It wasn’t the scenery that made the hill appear so magnificent, but the memories. The memories were what enriched the valley. Those scenes of Jeremiah Stone’s long gone past were what made the scraggly, unkempt bushes a thousand times more beautiful. Those memories made the nearly lifeless desert ferns more gorgeous than the most bewitching flower on planet earth; the rocks, magnificent; and the pale orchids stunningly bright. Those memories were what caused this valley to be setting of the most precious moment in Stone’s life.

Over thirty years ago Jeremiah Stone had stood on this hill in his father’s arms, a boy of seven years. There, father and son had stood high atop that hill, gazing out upon the valley. There, his head had laid upon his father’s shoulder, his arms wrapped around his dad so tightly, as his father told him that even though he hadn’t been there for his son, there was nothing in the world he loved more.

It was the last memory Stone had of his father. Several days after that intimate moment, his dad, a lifelong marine died in a crumbling hole of a house, grimy and bloodied as he waited for a rescue squad that would never come. That moment on the hill over thirty years ago was the closest he had ever gotten to his father. Never before had he felt that type of connection with someone. That special bond only a son can have with his father. That memory, along with the bond, was unfortunately gone.

There was a lump lodged in Stone’s throat as he made his way out of the vehicle and up the hill. When he reached the top of the summit he couldn’t help but peer west as the extraterrestrial rock began to block out the light of the sun. It was clear that the meteor was getting closer. From the looks of it, humanity had less than five minutes left. That truth burned in his brain.

For his entire life, Jeremiah Stone had always been told that he was too optimistic. His superiors in the US army had always mused that his views of humanities inherent goodness were nothing but the dreams of a fool. Earlier today, Stone had realized they were right. This revelation had come to him on his way out of Diyarbakir. As they drove through the city streets, they had passed by numerous storefronts whose large screen televisions streamed world news. Stone, having nothing else to do, had stared at the blurry screens passing by, as news reporters reported humanity’s last day. Nothing could have been more horrific.

Mass theft, murder, and rape abounded across the seven continents. Countries declared war on their neighbors quicker than one could even imagine. Civilians didn’t even know that they were at war until the missiles fell down upon them. Fields burned and cities were pillaged. Authoritarian nations crumbled as their citizens rose up in great revolt, making one last stand against the monsters that had ruined their lives.

As humanity faced its final moment there was no unity, no peace. The nations and peoples of the world did not stand together in oneness to face the oncoming end. No. In the end humanity had done what it had always done best- destroy. In Stone’s opinion, mankind’s final moment was a moment wasted.

In the west the meteor was but a mile from the churning waves of the Atlantic Ocean. Stone watched as the meteor kept falling. One mile left, half a mile left, a fourth a mile left and now none.

As the meteor was cast into the sea and the earth shuddered its final breath, the valley lay still.

And in the midst of it all, Jeremiah Stone stood, looking out upon this valley of his in childlike wonder. Pale pink orchids bloomed. Rock buds and ferns sheltered under rock walls. And among the scurrying desert mice, olive trees, and remaining denizens of this doomed land, archaic boulders boldly stood.

This is it he thought, and to Stone’s amazement he felt no fear. He was where he wanted to be, where he was supposed to be, this valley.

Taking his final breath Jeremiah A. Stone swore,-swore by all the gods of now and days long past that no matter what happened, no matter what came, he would never take his eyes off this valley. He never did.