Y2K Apocalypse

Anyone alive during the late 1990s would remember the infamous Y2K scare, where everyone thought the world was going to end. It was believed that the world's computers would glitch upon the midnight of 2000; resulting in world wide chaos as nukes and planes would drop from the sky, all electricity would cease to function and society as we knew it, was supposed to crumble and fall into ruin. Survivors would rise from the ashes however and begin wars with each other over the last land standing. A privileged few may hide underground in their bunkers, rising years later to reclaim their home. Of course as the year 1999 passed onto 2000, nothing of the sort happened. Thankfully, the horrors of Y2K was nothing but a myth and 24 years later in 2024, nothing of the sort has happened and life goes on as normal. However, what if there is an alternative reality out there, perhaps from another dimension where the fears of Y2K actually came true. What if everything everyone was afraid of, became a terrifying truth, one so haunting and devastating it would've changed the world as we knew it. This is the story of that alternate timeline, just be glad you didn't have the misfortune of living it.

Frank's entire family and friends didn't believe in the Y2K scare. He did however, deciding to stock up a decade worth of food supplies in his underground bunker. Frank's wife had even divorced him, because he had spent most of their life savings on this ridiculous idea, that the world was going to end. Her name was Lisa and she was glad to be rid of her foolish husband, hopefully she could recoup her lost savings before retirement, but it meant living on the nerves of her teeth, she could no longer afford the luxuries of life, only get by on the essentials and she absolutely loathed Frank for it. Everything was his fault, he had chosen to spend her money as well as his, on that stupid underground bunker which, she believed, would never be used or needed. Now if Lisa lived in our reality, she would be right in believing this of course, in fact she still lives in our realm of life, still working tirelessly to make back her life savings. However in this dimension, she would soon see the unforgiving errors of her ways. A few days before the New Year's eve of 2000, Frank had already sealed himself in his bunker, watching the TV broadcasting news about the Y2K scare. Apparently thousands of people across the globe had the same idea as Frank, in fact he stole the idea of hiding underground from the other believers he saw on TV and on the newspapers.
"I can't be wrong!" Frank told himself, "see all these other people, they got the same idea! We can't all be wrong or crazy, right?!" He shouted out loud, not quite believing himself. After spending thousands of dollars on the bunker and supplies, he almost wished the Y2K Apocalypse would actually happen, because if it didn't; then Lisa would've been right and really had just wasted most of their money on this stupid idea. The shame, embarrassment and guilt he'd feel if the Y2K thing was nothing but a hoax, it would be too much to bear. He'd have ruined his marriage and financial stability over nothing but a silly rumour. Then again, he thought about how lonely and scary a post Y2K Apocalypse would be like. It'll be a horrible, cruel world full of danger and bandits! For the longest time Frank would be alone, slowly going mad in his bunker, he knew he'd leave it one day a new and different man, one that wasn't charismatic and social, but one who was awkward and weird. Either way, Frank would lose. Now all he could do is wait. Night and day blended together, the only indication he had to know whether it was dark or light outside; was by looking at the numbers on his digital watch and clock he hung above the square TV. Eventually New Year's eve was upon him and not just Frank, but thousands of other people across the world, who also hid underground, watching the TV with the utmost terror and anticipation. Waiting, waiting impatiently for the clock to strike midnight, the minutes felt like hours, as each second dragged on longer and longer, becoming more and more infuriating until finally, it happened. 1999 ended and so began 2000, Frank braced for impact, shutting his eyes tight and cried! But nothing happened, fireworks went off on the news, at first he thought it was the nukes, but it wasn't, as cheers erupted from the TV.
"Well it looks like Y2K was a hoax!" The smiling anchor grinned mockingly on the TV screen. Frank's eyes bulged in surprise.
"The world hasn't ended!" He screamed, "I'm alive... Lisa's alive!" Frank stood up and danced, he was a man who never ever danced, but after being proven wrong, he danced like he was in a Broadway musical! He sang too, lyrics of joy and the wonders of life. He celebrated alongside the hundreds of people on TV, who were at fun New Year's eve parties, ones Frank wished he had attended instead of locking himself underground, alone and feeling foolish, but then the cheers became screams! Screams of terror! Frank stopped laughing, he stared at the TV and saw a nuclear bomb in the sky, it was filmed on the news cameras.
"Oh my god!" The news anchor screamed, "it's happening! It's really happening! Oh god! Oh no! It can't b-" the transmission died and almost immediately, Frank heard the whistle of a dropping nuke outside the bunker, from above the ceiling, followed by a wicked earthquake and the sound of explosion so loud and fierce it knocked the TV over onto the ground, the glass shattered like a fallen piano! The sound was horrifying, then he felt the food supplies fall from their shelves in the bunker's kitchen. A melody of broken glass bottles and bursting cartons of milk only added to the horror soundtrack of screams and sirens above Frank's bunker. He couldn't see the disaster outside, but he certainly imagined it! Cars racing away from the approaching mushroom cloud, mothers and children sprinting from impending doom, lone wandering suddenly screaming as the fallout radiated and burnt their flesh. Frank heard the many planes crashing all around him, he saw them in his mind; the passengers crying for mercy as the lights shut off and the engines stopped working, the pilot desperately pulling up the flight controls in an attempt to crash land the plane with as few casualties as possible. Frank could hear the planes break apart, followed by the thuds of humans screaming like heavy rain against the earth. His mind painted a picture of absolute horror and yet the reality of the chaos above was somehow far more gruesome and traumatising than anything his poor brain could ever visualise. Not even the greatest horror novelists could describe the hell on earth that Y2K had brought with it. Frank feared, perhaps even hoped that the earth above his bunker would cave in and kill him too. He wondered if death was better than survival, because Frank now knew the world above was nothing but ash, smoke and fire. Everyone he knew and loved, especially his ex-wife Lisa, was gone and forgotten from planet earth forever. The hometown he once lived in was no more, instead it'll be a desert of death and decay, a nuclear wasteland far worse than any post-apocalyptic movie or novel could ever depict.

Frank had survived the terror of 2000, Y2K came true and with it came a bang! Destroying the world as we knew it entirely. It was the end of the world and he felt fine, as fine as someone who knew everything he once loved and cherished was gone for all eternity, which wasn't very fine at all. Yet as the year went on, Frank's post trauma settled, he tidied his bunker and despite how saddened he was about his TV breaking, he found himself reading the many different books he had brought down with him instead. His mind escaped the tedium of underground life, as it imagined the pretty fantasy worlds of epic tales of dragon slayers and noble knights. He didn't read any of the horror or thriller books he had brought down, surviving Y2K was horrific enough. Eventually he'd read all the books he wanted by 2001 and didn't wish to re-visit any of them. At last he was utterly bored with absolutely nothing to do! So one day he finally decided to put on his yellow radiation suit and dared to climb the ladder leading up onto the surface of earth, he looked out the hatch window; the sky outside was scorched red, orange and black. There was yellow lightning that made the world seem all the more hellish! Frank gulped and opened the metal hatch open, it felt heavy and already it had rusted over. He gave it a good punch, then another and another until it burst open. The wind was strong and stunk of death, he could smell it through the thick rubber and plastic of his yellow suit radiation suit. Earth looked like mars, the once green and lush countryside Frank once lived on, was now a red sand full of yellow bones of the thousands who died when the Y2K disaster first happened. Old ruins stood in the dunes, alongside broken planes and other vehicles that had exploded in the disaster. Frank cried beneath his transparent visor, his tears streaming up the view with condensation that he couldn't wipe away. He was glad not to see the horror of 2001 however, as it was the most depressing, devastating and ultimately petrifying sight he had ever witnessed in all of his years on earth. Frank wished had died way back then, just to save his eyes from the hell he now found himself inside of.