original

Judgement Calls

Chapter 1: Apocalyptic Awakening: The Unveiling of Chaos

I was asleep one faithful morning… when all of a sudden, sounds of trumpets began blaring, these were sounds so loud you couldn't even ignore them if you tried. Then all of a sudden someone began urging me to wake up.

"wake up Edward, you have to wake up now, we can't stay here wake up"

the voice said, each time higher, louder and more driven to make sure I woke up. I wake up to find my little sister crying over my chest. But that isn't the only thing I noticed. The sky had turned completely red as if the sun was reflecting blood instead of the blue waters of the ocean, it was like waking up from a dream only to be living in a nightmare and when I saw this, a part of me honestly hoped I was still asleep, in my bedroom on my comfy bed, in my nice house just ready to wake up from this nightmare soon enough. Then balls of fire rained down from the sky tearing through the clouds and shredding through the earth. I looked to my left and right and all I could see on both sides were the ruin of the earth, the land, the place I had grown up and called home.

"Akira"

I called out with a small voice.

"Yes, big brother"

she answered.

"What's going on? and where are Mum and Dad"?

I asked she responded saying she didn't know what was going on and that she couldn't contact our parents, they had gone out together when all of a sudden, the sky turned red and the trumpets started to blow. I noticed how a lot of people were in panic and confused but yet certain people were just on their knees with their hands together as if they wanted to pray. I paid no attention to it at the time because there were more pressing issues I had to attend to like finding my parents.

I and my sister ran in search of our parents hoping to find them

"They couldn't have gone too far if it was shortly after they left this all started"

I said in a frustrated tone. While I threw around rocks and complained Akira

found our parent's car. It had crashed into the side of a building and had some fallen rubble on it

"Big brother! I found them"

She yelled as she rushed over to the car and started to remove the fallen rocks. I followed her lead and came to her aid. We cleared the windshield of the car to get a good look inside but found nothing

"They aren't here?"

Said my worried little sister as tears began to stream down her eyes uncontrollably, I quickly proceeded to hug her to cheer her up as much as I could "They couldn't have gotten very far, they probably just got out of the car and ran somewhere for shelter. I'm sure we will find them if we keep going"

I said with a doubtful tone in my voice and why wouldn't I doubt when faced with such? No clue what's going on, no help, no sign of assistance or word from the government, no sign of any family or loved one? It's like the world is coming to an end. I said to myself as I let go of my little sister, suddenly the ground began to tremble and the floor behind us began to collapse

"Can't we catch a break!" I yelled out

I quickly grabbed Akira and began to run for my dear life. We hadn't gotten far when

"Big brother"

"Not now Akira"

"But big brother"

"Just keep running"

I looked up ahead and I saw a street sign with the roads splitting, one to the left and one to the right. I wasted no time thinking it through when I quickly turned right there I saw a crowd and quickly stopped. People gathered and for some reason weren't moving, they seemed to be in awe of something in the sky, that's when I noticed the people floating into the air

"What is this?!" I yelled then in my frustration I tried to turn back and go to the left but the road behind us had collapsed into what looked like a lake of fire. I also noticed that not just the ground but the people who stood on it had fallen into the lake, it was only a few places with pillars standing on their own that were towering out of the lake that had people on it but even they weren't phased by the ground beneath them being swallowed up. No, they were too focused on something behind me. Again, I turned back and looked to the sky when I saw a giant book that parted the clouds and the atmosphere, it was above the earth but looked like it was on it, it shuns so brightly it was blinding and was the brightest and beautiful thing in the sky even among the stars we could now clearly see above the earth's atmosphere, it was still the most beautiful thing I had seen. Then I noticed… that the people around me who were staring at this same book had either lost their minds or jumped into the lake of fire behind me. It started with one, then two, then three, then the multitude. More people lost their minds and jumped into the fire and others eyes burst at the mere sight of the book

"Akira! Hold on!"

I said to my little sister as grabbed her and cradled her in my arms. The crowd rushing to jump into the lake ran into me and trampled on me. I had started to suffocate when I looked into the crowd from the floor and saw my parents holding on to each other desperately. I stretched out my left hand trying to reach out to them

"Mom, Dad"

I said drawing all the breath I could as they continued to trample all over me breaking my left arm. I started to lose consciousness when Akira started to cry.