Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Armageddon

You're standing on the street corner. You don't know how you got there. Your surroundings are completely familiar, yet something is off, as if it's a combination of places you know well. There are two people with you, people you know but who seem completely random. You look up to see a building with gold-toned mirrored windows. The building does not belong there, at that vantage point from the street corner, but even more frightening is what is happening to the building.

You don't know what to think of what you are seeing before your very eyes, then the terror hits you. Even then, the full weight of what is happening doesn't hit you. There is a dragon, a very large dragon, destroying the building. It's completely absurd, but all your brain can register is fear and panic. You and your companions turn to run. You know this is it. The proverbial shit has hit the metaphorical fan.

There is a car, you can't think of anywhere else to hide. You get in the car and you all curl into the fetal position in utter terror. There are blankets in the car, you pile them on top of you, much like a frighten child believes hiding under the covers will protect them from the boogie man. You don't know exactly why, but for some reason, your companions leave you. You're not getting out of that car, so you stay, whatever fate shall befall them is no matter to you; you know this is the safe spot.

From under your sanctuary of blankets, you peek out, through the car window and what you see further solidifies your belief that this is it. You have never in your life felt so scared, so helpless, so terrified. You see the buildings rising up out of the concrete jungle like fence posts. Behind the buildings, from the spaces between you see more dragons, marching in a line. In addition to the dragons are gigantic demons. Your brain doesn't register the absurdity that these things are bright purple, all you can think of is your own survival in what appears to be playing out as the equivalent of the biblical apocalypse. Beelzebub is the first word that comes to mind to describe these things.

You are completely transfixed, so captivated in fact, that you do not see the line progressing toward your position. You see a purple creature coming towards you and your immediate instinct is to play dead. The creature doesn't see you, but decides anyway to use the vehicle you've taken sanctuary in as a chair. As the weight bears down on the roof of the car, you are pinned inside. Trapped, with nowhere to run (as if you had any intention of running and exposing yourself anyway).

It seems that, while the dragons are the destroyers, the purple creatures have a great deal of intelligence, even if they have the appearance of stupid ogres. They are not out to destroy, they are out to convert. While you were standing on the street corner, with no recollection of how you got there - while you were hiding in the car like a child under the blankets - these creatures had destroyed humanity. You are among a slight few survivors. Somehow, you already know this, but you also know there is something else. Something about getting bitten.

Somehow, the creature becomes aware of your presence. It more than likely has smelled fear seeping from your pores like the stench of a rotting corpse, and you know it knows. You know, at this point, if this were a dream you'd awaken in a sweaty fear, heart racing. You don't wake up. Instead, the creature collects you.

You must black out, because you cannot remember how you got into the warehouse. At least, you think it's a warehouse. There's random stuff everywhere, none of it important or significant enough to take note of it or for you to remember what it is. There is a man. But it's not a man. It's certainly not the purple creature your brain christened "Beelzebub". He's going to know you've awakened and you know this. For some reason, you are standing, you've been standing, which doesn't seem to make any sense. Suddenly, you see yourself, but it's not you, but it has to be you, because the only people in this room are you and the man-thing.

"You" are wrestling the man-thing, trying to take him off guard. You find something to strangle it with and quickly wrap it around his neck and take him down. You tie it off while it struggles for air. Yet, you can see, it's going to break free. The complete amazement at your own bravery doesn't stop you from taking off... But you don't know where to go. Again you black out.

When you come to, you realize it has caught you. Again, you know, if this were a dream, this is where you would wake up in a terrified sweat. You don't. You look at your surroundings and realize you are in one of the most beautiful buildings you have ever seen. A cross between a church, an historical building and a brilliant marble mansion. I'm in a bright, white, marble circular room with a vaulted ceiling. It's beautiful and comfortable. I realize I am not being held captive. There are others there with me. I don't recognize them, yet I know them. I am no longer afraid.

I know what's going on outside. I know that civilization is gone. Our buildings are destroyed and our people are dead. It's the utter destruction of the world. Armageddon has just taken place, but I am at peace. I am in this beautiful building, surrounded by these (non)strangers. A man takes you by the hands. You take note of his long dreadlocks. He tells you everything will be ok, you can live here. You want to live there. You remember thinking "the Devil's in the Whitehouse in a big fat comfy chair", you must have heard it in a song.

I think to myself, I can do this, this will be ok. All the while, I don't realize, I have been bitten. I have become one of them.

You are now responsible for what's going on outside, and you're ok with it, because you're still alive. You've survived the terror, it doesn't matter what happened to the others.