My Whole Expanse I Cannot See…

I formulate infinity stored deep inside of me…

Feb 24

The end

Category: Life

One day the world will end, our planet will die. There are some very likely ways we’ll meet our demise. Our sun definitely won’t last forever, whether it burns out, or explodes, we’re all dead. It’s also possible that we’ll kill ourselves long before that happens, whether it’s with bombs we use on each other, or pollution that turns our planet against us, suicides of a sort. These are such conventional ways to go, they’re not how I want to go.

When the world ends, I want it to end spectacularly. I want the walking dead to pound at my door, to shatter my windows. I want some rotting living corpse, some living dead girl to hold me close and chew out my throat. I want to feel her cold lips against my neck, her dead hands clutching my shoulders. My blood would pour down my chest, and I’d get sleepy. I’d bleed out happy, knowing that we don’t stop at death. I’d sleep, and I’d wake up.

How do you want us to go?

15 comments

15 Comments so far

  1. Matthew Dyer February 24th, 2009 4:40 pm

    Whenever I think of the end of it all, I think of this Asimov short story: http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html

    I’m sappily optimistic that endings should be just like beginnings: full of chance and potential.

  2. Will February 24th, 2009 6:03 pm

    A madman see’s the Last day coming and drops 5,000 metric tons of XTC into the water supply….of my town of course.

  3. Alex Carnegie February 24th, 2009 6:14 pm

    @Will: all the mineral water drinkers’d wake up that morning and wonder why everyone was gurning and acting super loved-up. I don’t wanna go out all E’d up – I can think of better mental states in which to ‘meet my maker’. I guess at least there’d be no comedown or seratonin depletion to worry about as there’d be no next morning though…

    Re. the end of life on this planet: the elite will have long left this place in their space-arks by then to find new planets to mess up. Earth will become one big ghetto going into meltdown. I find it hard to shake this image of the future really.

    I’d like to leave this life finally happy, contented, and fulfilled: the twist being that at that point I really won’t want it to end. Irony always has the last laugh.

  4. michael February 24th, 2009 9:18 pm

    Matthew: I like that.

    Will: Of course!

    Alex: Yeah, if we’re all going, I want to be nice and lucid.

  5. Will February 24th, 2009 9:54 pm

    I wasn’t so serious of course, but now that I reconsider ;I’m going to merely hybrid what I already suggested; if you take Michael’s Zombies and add the XTC water supply idea; it would be the first time zombie victims ran up to their attackers with open arms to give them a hug.

    Although not a glimpse into the future to the Zombie Rave Apocalypse, I have to admit I’ve seen some glow-stick zombies dancing to music only the undead could appreciate.

    I think end-of-days thinking plants too many seeds in the back of the brain that come out later when we’re done with their novelty and are counterproductive in the end. Hell, I get a little behind on my bills, I can’t do what I want, I stop cleaning up the house alittle, next thing I know my subconscious has me convinced things suck, love is fleeting, life a drag. I catch up on the bills? I get out with peeps? I clean up the house? Huh. Suddenly the worldview ain’t all that grim. But it takes the subcon alittle longer to adjust.

    It reminds me of how privileged cultures and privileged people get beat down after a hay day at the top, and suddenly the world’s ending, but, it’s always exaggerated and based in fear vs. reality.

    I think it’s funny first, F’ing scary second: when Clinton got elected there were angry old white men forming militias all over this country because Clinton was going to steal their rights and invade their privacy and the only thing to do was ammo/gun Up…. Bush comes in, and literally steals their rights; no warrants, does EVERYTHING they formed militant groups for the “end times” for, from imperialistic wars draining their money and telling them just Trust me, to being “Big Goverment” embodied down the nanometer; and they all shut up and went home, after voting for him and supporting him.

    Obama’s in, and now they’re back. But now it’s Rush Limbaugh and Socialism eating the heart of “us” out.

    I would like selective XTC Water Supply/Zombie Rave End Days, but only in key areas with angry white militias. (and available on YouTube).
    If that works out; THEN we can talk about how to end the whole place because zombies and mass XTC poisoning is only the hitting the tip of a hilarity iceberg.

  6. J. Deville Bishop February 24th, 2009 10:10 pm

    I’d be honored to be supper for a large and magnificent predator. I’m not sure how I can arrange for it to happen to everyone all at once, but I’ll make some calls.

    Somone told me that’s why prey animals go into shock; so we don’t damage a predator’s eyes, nose, or mouth by fighting back while we’re getting killed and eaten.

    I really hate nature and the environment, but being part of the food web might be my way of giving back.

    Oh! Never mind all that. I forgot about an alien death ray fired from the moon. That’s the ticket!

  7. Sir Tessa February 25th, 2009 12:44 am

    Soon.

  8. Alex Carnegie February 25th, 2009 6:57 am

    “Although not a glimpse into the future to the Zombie Rave Apocalypse, I have to admit I’ve seen some glow-stick zombies dancing to music only the undead could appreciate.”

    That sounds suspiciously like Dubstep, which although the rhythmic & melodic equivalent of valium has the kind of bass that could probably penetrate the veil of death. It’d drag them back from their slumber and would probably be the only thing their rotted aural organs could pick up.

  9. Tara February 25th, 2009 8:16 am

    In the event of inevitable, impending doom: I’d like the water supply to be dose with massive amounts of LSD(or perhaps my favorite research chemical, DOB..mmm…It’s amazing stuff..). Maybe some MDMA mixed in there too, for good happiness’ sake measure.

    And, just be completely enthralled and enamored with the universe, and how beautifully everything fits together on this rock we call home. Like gears of a clock, we’re all just part of the same organism. Everything would be beautiful and perfect, for a brief moment in time.

  10. Angie February 25th, 2009 8:50 am

    A big meteor rushing towards Earth! Knowing it was coming would force humanity to show its true colors. Would we go peaceful in the arms of our families? Or would we go looting?

    Either way, giant meteor movies are always awesome.

  11. KJ Bishop February 26th, 2009 6:15 pm

    I want us to go in spacecraft long before the end happens. Even if we have to go sublight and genetically engineer ourselves into very different forms to survive the trip (human/water bear hybrids, anyone?).

    When our house burns down, I want us to be watching the flames from a green place far, far away.

    I’m sorry, I have no fantasies of destruction. (But if I were going to go for one, I’d take the dragon and the seven seals and the woman with the starry crown. John of Patmos, you awesome tripper, you…)

  12. michael February 27th, 2009 12:10 am

    J.: Nice.

    KJ: I’m all for human/water bear hybrids.

  13. Will February 27th, 2009 1:36 am

    My comment about how end dayz thinking is counterproductive….I don’t “follow” angry white male militia stats, I just keep things in the back of my brain and they pop out when someone writes something that inspires me….today I read in some news blurb; sales of guns in the USA, were up 82% from Dec to Feb. Gun Maker profits are thru the roof. Don’t have to ask who’s buying.

    Why all this detail? If you take those poor saps’ fears, draw a metaphoric comparison to your own fears, no matter who you be, you find…. I need say no more.
    I hope.
    (we can only hope, some may say) (aka, hijack the topic some more Will, you ahole). (But for those that see the correlation, you dig. For those who don’t: let me spell it out: once you start down the path of where You or It All “ends”, it can take over. If not everything, at least a small part. A valuable precious part, even if small, a part you don’t have Time for. Stick to the here now. (But from a creative writing standpoint? Give us more.) ((What would life and subjects be if not a double edged sword?))F’ing Boring, that’s what.

    Note to self: I should wrap this up/not drink on “school nights”.

  14. michael February 27th, 2009 1:48 am

    Will: Sometimes, thinking about the end reminds one why right now is beautiful and important.

  15. Alex Carnegie February 28th, 2009 10:13 pm

    KJ: “When our house burns down, I want us to be watching the flames from a green place far, far away.” – although I know you’re not being literal, if current thinking is anything to go by the house’ll [i]flood[/i]. I’ve been thinking of ideas for an end-of-days sci-fi story I have to write for something, and one of my them was of humanity existing merely in a gigantic self-sustaining undersea computer, having uploaded ourselves as ‘constructs’ then committed mass suicide rather than starve our drown. “When the last human shot himself Kathmandu was below sea level…”

    Similarly this idea might have a place when it comes to sublight travel: “they left their fragile bipedal bodies behind on the dying planet…”. The logical conclusion of course is that once we’re data, we don’t even need to physically travel, at least in the conventional sense – once something’s set up to recieve us, we just transmit on over.

    Michael: The poignancy inherent in an ending, of any kind really, is definately one of my preoccupations.