The End of the World

"Well, I guess I'll see you in the morning," I said kissing my wife goodbye, and got ready to walk out the door.

"I always hate it when you say that," Lisa said looking me in the eye.

"I'm sorry. I just meant I'd see you in the morning," I said, retracting the way in which I said my goodbyes.

"I'll be here," she said like always, and smiled the smile I'd known for the last twenty five years. It was always hard saying goodbye, even though I had probably said it a thousand times over the years we'd been together. I guess when I look back it had always been in the back of my mind if there would ever come a night when I didn't get home in the morning.

I had been a truck driver for the last thirty one years. Some of these years were over the road, but the last fifteen years or so I had been a line haul driver. With this job I would leave at night and return the next morning. Most of these nights were usually spent alone in the darkness with just a late night talk show, and my books on tape.

Some nights I got a few phone calls from some fellow co-workers, and we would talk about some of the latest gossip that was going around about our company. Or we'd just chat about our families, and our worries about the future. Certain times these conversations had gotten rather deep and we'd go on for quite a while. But, most of the times my nights were spent in silence, with just me and my thoughts.

Tonight had been one of those nights when something had felt a little off; not quite right. Of course everything was fine, but tonight I felt a little out of place when I left home. I usually put these thoughts out of my mind when I left the house, and sat my mind to the job at hand: hauling the freight. Some nights were easier than others to silence these thoughts, so I had to work extra hard on those nights to keep my worries at bay.

As I pulled into the terminal I checked to see if my truck was parked in its spot; most of the time it was back in the shop for who knew what reason. But tonight I was in luck. My truck was parked and ready to go; and so the night was on. When I got out of the car and walked over to my truck this odd feeling hit me again. So I shut my mind down; silencing the ego which haunted my mind.

With my paperwork ready, and the truck pre-tripped I was ready to haul ass. As I pulled out of the yard I immediately turned on the stereo to the local F.M station to silence my mind, and sat back and jammed on some of the "oldies" bringing back memories from the past. I looked at the clock on the dashboard logging the time in which I had left the yard. Most truck drivers were ruled by the time in which they made their runs. I'm sure these thoughts were thoughts of the ego too, others drivers could care less how long it took to make their runs.

After about an hour of travel I checked my phone; no missed calls. I felt like I just needed someone to talk with to put my mind at ease. I put the phone back in its spot and thought about calling Mike, or maybe even Smitty; anyone. I changed the channel on the radio hoping that it would help; but it didn't. Then the phone rang; it was Smitty, thank God. Smitty always had something interesting to talk about; he always seemed to be a wealth of information.

"Hello," I said, answering the phone.

"Where you at Hook?" Smitty asked. This was always what he said when I answered the phone.

"Oh, let me see. I'm at the sixty eight mile marker. Where you at?" Was my usual reply; real exciting huh? We sat and talked for awhile when he got another call and let me go. I put the phone back into its spot and sat in the silence; wondering if he was gonna call me back. After about an hour I turned radio back on to the late night talk show, and listened to see what the subject was for the night.

I called Mike and got his voicemail; sometimes he came in late. I'd call him back later. I loved talking to Mike; we seemed to have a lot in common. We both had gone to the same church, and seemed to view our roads in life pretty much in the same way. We always talked about our families, and he always made me fell better when I talked to him. He was much like Smitty and usually reassured me when I was down. Man did I need them both tonight.

Something flashed in the sky catching my attention. "It was probably just a falling star" I thought, although it looked pretty big to be a falling star. I made my switch with my Milwaukee driver and headed back for the terminal. Another flash streaked across the night sky; this one was really big. I turned back on the radio to the A.M talk show and heard the news which I had always feared the most.

"We have ...some information...that we'd like to pass on...to everyone." Then there was a silence that seemed to last forever. "We have just received a report... that states that a meteor....." Then the radio went dead. My heart started to beat faster. Had George just said something about a meteor? He was always reliable when it came to reporting the latest news reports. Another flash of light flew across the sky quickly and dissipated into little particles; this one was really huge in the night sky.

The phone rang; it was Mike on the phone. Mike always was my eyes and ears in the night. He was a retired police chief, and he had a good sense about him. He was an excellent front door, and always told me about any road closings; he was a good man to have on your side.

"Lamb-chop!" Mike said hurriedly. I think we've got something serious going on. Have you heard the news?"

"I was just starting to hear something about a meter and the radio went dead," I said quickly as I started to breathe faster.

"Well, take it for what's it worth," Mike said. "I just heard that there's a big, and I mean a big meteor heading towards us. You need to do what you can to..." And then I lost his call. It seemed like my mind was going to explode as all of these thoughts rushed to my brain. I grabbed the phone to call home and the phone rang again. It was Smitty.

"Hey man," Smitty said rather quickly. "I just called home... and my wife said that the news just reported a big meteor is supposed to hit somewhere in the mid-west. Have you talked with your wife?" He asked very fast; sounding like he was also worried.

"No, I just got a call from Mike, and then his phone went dead," I said. "Let me call you back," I said and hung up. My hands were shaking so bad I dropped the phone in the floor, and almost ran off the road trying to pick it up. A car came skidding and fish-tailing through the median as another huge streak flashed across the sky. I jerked the truck so quickly I nearly jackknifed the as the car slammed into my trailer and ran off the side of the road.

I stopped the truck and the man got out and gave me the finger. I grabbed the phone, shifted a gear, and started hauling ass southbound; headed towards home. I had to take several deep breaths to be able to stop shaking long enough to make the call. Just when I was starting to make the call I ran up on three more cars that were parked in the middle of the road watching the show in the sky. I clipped one of the cars in the tail-end spinning it around in the road and grabbed another gear. Thank God the phone rang again; this time it was home calling.

"Honey are you alright!" Lisa screamed into the phone.

"Yes!" I shouted. "What in the hell is going on?" I asked with a big lump in my throat; feeling like I was getting ready to pass out from breathing too fast. The sky was now filled with streaks of particles breaking apart and lighting up the night sky as if it were daylight.

"Where are you?" Lisa screamed into the cell phone as I started to lose the signal. I wound the window up in the truck to be able to hear her better.

"Lisa, are you there," I asked, but the phone just started to crackle. At last I heard her voice on the other end of the line.

"Where are you," she asked again.

"I'm about an hour out. Are you okay?" I asked, shaking as I asked her.

"Yes, she said, and started to cry uncontrollably. I sat for a minute not knowing what to say. Finally I pulled myself together

"Listen, I said," trying to calm my voice down. "I'll be home in about an hour, hang in there... do you hear me?" I asked, trying to get her to calm down. I knew it was hopeless.

"You'll never make it," she said. "They said on the news that the main part of the meteor would land somewhere in Indiana. Isn't that where you are? You'll never make it," she just kept saying over and over.

"When is it supposed to hit?" I asked not wanting to hear what the answer was. The line just crackled for a while and finally went dead. Panic sat in and I mashed the accelerator for all it was worth. It didn't really matter the truck would only go sixty eight miles and hour, and that was with the cruise control on.

The next forty five minutes were spent in a constant state of terror as I dodged cars and people that were parked in the road. One large piece of a meteor hit a car just ahead of me, and it erupted in a fireball of flame as it ran off the edge of the road. I locked up the brakes on the truck as the car ran into a bridge and flipped end over end as people were thrown out of the car and into the road.

I sideswiped about ten more cars with my trailer that had blocked the road as I made my way into town. The front of the truck looked like it had been in a demolition derby with a tank. Just as I came into the downtown area I watched as a large piece of meteor took out three buildings in downtown Louisville. I frantically called my home number over and over, and finally got a very weak signal that must have bounced off of a local tower.

"Lisa!" I shouted at the top of my lungs and heard her voice very weak screaming on the other side of the line.

"I love you! She shouted as I watched a fireball three times the size of the moon in the sky come streaking across the downtown sky. The atmosphere had been ripped apart, and fireballs were raining down with debris that filled the sky. I stopped on the bridge and got out of my truck and shouted as I watched the fireball takeover the sky.

"I love you too!" I shouted, "Close your eyes and we'll be together."

Life as we knew it ended that day. The Earth took a direct hit from a meteor that was estimated at eight miles across at its widest point. This event was known as an E.L.E (Extinction Level Event). The year had been 2012, and prophecy had been fulfilled. All life except microbial life had become extinct on that day.

If the life of our sun endured long enough life would begin again. It would then start the same process all over again that it had done many times before. New souls would inhabit this new world, and life would continue again.