With a heavy sigh, I look down from my dreary apartment window to the street below. Normally, cars would be blazing along here, pedestrians dodging those that take traffic rules to be more of a suggestion, vans would be blaring advertisements... but none of that is going on right now. Who knew, it only takes the impending end of the world for this city to actually slow down.
Compared to what I'm used to, it's downright peaceful these days, as the coming apocalypse has just kind of deflated everybody at this point.
Many people have just outright quit their jobs, myself included, and schools have entirely ceased to function. In fact, it's only recently sunk in for me that I am part of the last ever graduation class. That's it, there will be no more classes graduating, because the world's ending.
At this point, I certainly don't see any reason not to go. In fact, the prospect of just partying until it all goes to Hell sounds like a real good time to me.
I quit my job a few days ago, recognizing the futility of it all, and that has left me with fairly little to do. And with that, I set off. Walking through the streets is quite the surreal experience these days. With the reality of the situation truly set in everybody's mind, the whole urgency this sort of impending doom should normally lead to has just kind of stopped. All the usual annoyances that rely on humans have basically stopped—minimum wage workers holding signs and shouting about the latest gadgets, the advertisement vans, and so on. Of course, the things that don't need humans like the massive vidscreens hawking goods and services or the automated drones blaring ads are still going just the same, but still, that means the noise pollution is a lot lower.
After a few minutes, I arrive at the school, and I'm again struck with such a strange feeling. For a lot of people, school is just a part of their life, definitely less than a quarter of it. But for me, given that my life is going to end fairly soon alongside everybody else's, school is basically my entire life. My classmates are essentially people I've known for my entire life. Such an odd feeling, but I push it to the back of my mind. While the school has been completely shuttered for a few weeks now, the corporate sponsorship neon billboards all around the walls still blast out their bright lights to whoever's watching. Maybe they'll still be going when we're all gone. Oh well, not something for me to worry about.
Instead, I step inside the building and make my way towards the gym, the route still second nature to me. As I approach, music and laughter start becoming louder—seems like the party's already started. Indeed, stepping inside of the gym itself, I find it completely transformed. It's all made up for a celebration, a massive sound system is blasting the most popular dance tunes, food and drink is set out on a long table, and about twenty of my former classmates are mingling amongst each other. There's Hiro, the class nerd... and over there's Anders, the jock. Even though it's only been a year since graduation, some have changed a lot, while others seem exactly the same. Memories start flooding back into my mind, and I feel at home again. It's time to party, and I before I can even decide where to start, I already hear a voice call out from the crowd, "Hey,John ! Over here!"