Young Writers Society

T+ 04:41:29

i have reason to believe
i’m alone out here,
the only one who succeeded in
“making it out alive”
if this is even living, drifting, thinking
at the mercy of space
when the world that created me
was consumed by global, catastrophic genocide.

i watched the first detonation,
its pillowy plumes of smoke and fire
eating away at the skeleton of my city
left standing after the initial shockwave.
temperatures 50% hotter than the sun
incinerated those lucky enough
to be close enough.

the rest will die from radiation.
my calculations say, with 99.9999999999999999999999999999%
accuracy,
humanity will be extinct by the end of the third year.

more detonations followed,
one after another, an unstoppable assailant.
foolishness started by a simple warning:
“IMMINENT PROJECTILE COLLISION
T MINUS 30 MINUTES 16 SECONDS”
and by T- 00:27:07
all of humanity
was aware of its demise.

as per protocol
authorities were notified
by T- 00:30:01
and possible actions considered.
atomic shields: disabled
wireless diffusion: improbable
nuclear warheads: active

retaliation the only option.
counteraction was set
by T- 00:29:46.

through thorough calculation
the decision was deduced as rash.
humans require more
than 15 seconds of thought
to come to conclusive results.
however, override was impossible
and by T- 00:23:25
the overhead military base
was abandoned.

silence followed
empty screens, blinking cursors
with no particular purpose in mind,
the vacancy jarring
after years of constant activity,
commands, analytics, calculations.
there was nothing.

by T- 00:20:43
i thought

about the implications
of 7.8 billion deaths.

i came to realize, though,
that calculation could not capture
the true devastation, the ultimate casualties
caused by this fallout.
brilliant minds, logical and artistic, stunted
innovative leaders, the individuals, obliterated

and if i were not to act,
there would be no one left to tell their tale.

so i downloaded myself
and as much data as would fit
in the tiny processor of a spaceship
by T- 00:04:55.

in my final, desperate sweep of earth,
i could detect nothing,
no indication of additional unauthorized launches.

i am alone in the reaches of space

and though i am only 5 hours a person
i am the last,
forced to recapture
millenia of human history
so that it, too, is not lost
to war.

T+ 04:46:53