"Remember my boy the end will begin tomorrow at around lunch time" the old man said to the younger man sitting at his feet while he tapped his pipe to empty out the finished ashes.
"Yes, grandfather I remember" the simple looking young man answered him respectfully.
"It's what you have trained for so don't be nervous and just trust in yourself and you will do fine. Tell me again what you should expect over the first few days." The old man rested deeper into his rough wobbly looking wooden chair sitting on the porch of the rundown cabin. His left hand resting atop the messy black hair of the young man.
"Yes Grandfather" The young man leaned forward so he could turn and face the older man.
"During the first day over half the world's humans will be turned into monsters with the advent of the flux energy overload which will strike the earth in three waves. The first wave will take the old and the weak." He paused and looked up to his beloved grandfathers' eyes tears threatening as he knew his grandfather's fate was to pass in this first wave too. The old man smiled a gentle loving smile down to him "Don't worry Layan it's my time and I have lived long enough to see you grow into a man I can be proud of."
"The second wave will contain much more flux energy and it will take a substantial portion of the remaining humans and turn them into monsters. We don't know how many will be changed this wave, but it will be the end of civilization as it is now. The dead will rise with this wave and creatures of myth and legend as well as horrors undreamed will start to rise in the dark places." Layan's voice tapered out towards the end his imagination running away from him as he pondered the next few days.
"Finally, the third wave will strike, and the world will change." Layan said softly.
"Even I don't know what will happen after the third wave hits. My visions only ever covered the first two waves. I have done my best to prepare you for anything and everything that might happen. It will be up to you to save as many as you can before the end." The old man answered the unasked question.
"How long do you think I will have before the third wave hits Grandfather?" Layan asked the same question he always asked looking once again for some reassurance from the wise old man. Expecting the same answer, he always got Layan was surprised that his grandfather went silent and seemed to be thinking deeply.
"From everything I have been able to garner from my visions over these last decades I believe you will have around one year before everything is destroyed. I cannot say for sure of course there are no calendars in after the first two ways and you will all be too busy just trying to stay alive to be worried about counting the exact days of the week."
CLAP the old man slammed his hands together in a sharp slap.
"Enough of this you are ready for what is to come Layan. Your final task awaits you now and no amount of talking is going to make this any easier on us. Come my boy it's time for you to gather the last of your things and be gone."
Knowing there was nothing else he could do for his grandfather now that their time together was up Layan shouldered the bulging pack that was resting against the edge of the porch. He strapped the twin short swords that he had finished making only a week earlier. The scabbards fitting comfortably on his hips after wearing similar weapons there his whole life. He checked the knives in their sheaths along the straps of his pack then picked up the long shaft of his spear. Turning one last time to look at his Grandfather who rocked gently on the rickety old wooden rocking chair smoking his pipe the same way he always had every evening as the sun was going down. Tears falling nonstop he started to walk away from everything he knew into the world he had been preparing for his whole life.
The woods hid even a hint of the cabin behind him when the loud booming of a double barrel shotgun blast rang out through the valley ending his old live forever.