FICTION: SHATTERDAY & STUNDAY

It began with a bang.

Followed by a loud and sonorous voice.

Both shook my windows. One blast after another.

The blast’s echo had not faded before the voice sounded, a voice saying something unintelligible.

I ran to the nearest window, opened it as quickly as I could and looked out.

Most windows had not withstood the vibration. The street below was littered with broken glass.

People were shouting in alarm and grievous annoyance. The cacophony rose and fell in various degrees of insistence as in the distance a police or ambulance alarm could be heard approaching.

I shut the window to keep out the ranting of the gathering crowd below and the increasing number of sirens that were now sounding.

Suddenly I involuntarily ducked down in fright as another booming voice, even louder this time, sounded.

Another unintelligible vocalization.

Who could be broadcasting this... command, message, whatever it was?

Whoever it was he sounded as if he was getting impatient.

And then it came, shaking the very foundations of all the buildings around me, the loudest vocalization of all. Yes, he was definitely getting angry.

I looked back toward the window.

There was a flash. Someone had sent up a flare. The green light of it flared and fell... then silence.

Bells began to ring.

I ran back to the window and looked down. People were holding their ears, their faces grimacing masks of pain.

My forehead creased as many millions of others must have done at that moment.

What the HELL was going on?

And... what should I do now?

I knew the first thing was to find and put on my most efficiently ear-covering headphones. Before doing so I raided my medicine box and ripped cotton wool out and stuffed some in each ear.

Then I switch the TV on.

“... has been mayhem. There has been no official announcement as yet. We are attempting to contact any government or official of the police, army or in fact anyone, to gain some information on the occurrences this morning. Currently, we are no wiser than our viewers as to what has just transpired. Meanwhile, we are running these images and film clips gathered from social media in a loop...”

I gazed stunned at the images.

Cars smashing into each other. A suspension bridge shaking back and forth. A woman bleeding from multiple cuts to her face and arms, clearly the result of falling glass. Blurred figures sprawled on a pavement somewhere. The debris from a downed plane.

Then the audio of the second vocalization slowed in an effort to make it intelligible. No recording had emerged as yet of the first.

Even slowed down it was still virtually impossible to make out what was being said. It was wide open to interpretation.

I checked the net. People were making wild guesses about what the voice said. Some were downright stupid, and some I thought were in very bad taste. After all, many people had clearly died. The majority however were quoting the Bible claiming it was clearly the Second Coming.

“I AM”
“I AM COME!”

These were the most frequent guesses for the two sounds. I rewound the TV and listened again.

Certainly, “I AM COME!” could fit. But so could “I AM CALM!” though admittedly the latter was more than a little less likely considering the tone and volume in which it was said.

Whoever or whatever had emitted the vocalizations and presumably had caused the initial blast had been silent for a full fifteen minutes by that point.

I kept the TV on and flicked through channels looking for more news.

One was showing scenes of flooding and I began watching.

“... massive loss of life reported from multiple coastal cities. If you are within two hundred or more kilometres of any coastal area leave now as fast as you possibly can. Leave all belongings. You have no time to spare. If you have no transport, urgently reach whatever high ground is near you!”

Tsunamis the like of which the world had never seen were sweeping the world.

I realized with a chill that absolutely everyone was in danger. A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E-L-Y E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E!

The hairs all over my body stood on end My heart pounded, ready to burst. I froze for a moment... then ran.

I got into my car and revved her up. Out on the street, I saw the first signs that others had got the message and were gunning their vehicles and heading out.

I hit the motorway as I saw it. But I heard it first. The roar.

Far to my left across the city, I saw what appeared to be a regular line of low-lying white clouds. But they were no clouds. And the road was of no thunder. A gigantic wave was approaching the size of which must have been at least fifty feet if not much more.

In my fright, I pressed down on the pedal until it hit the floor. As the engine roared we veered far over to the right across two lanes. Luckily, relatively few had heard the full details yet and the motorway was relatively empty so, no harm done. As I gunned forward I glanced in my rearview mirror. I realized then that word had begun to spread. I was leading a convoy of hundreds, perhaps thousands.

My mind swirled. My parents. My home. Julie.

But I knew I could do nothing. There was no time. There was no time for anything anymore. Except to run.

It felt like a computer game but without the pleasure. Sweat ran down from my hair in rivers and joined the increasing damp across the rest of my palpitating body. Adrenalin coursed through me. I gripped the steering wheel trying to keep to a straight course. The speedometer fluctuated around 130 kph.

So many familiar sights flashed by. Homes, restaurants, gas stations, trees, bushes, flowers. Some people tending to their gardens, clearly ignorant of what was coming. Though as I reached them they looked up then looked back at those following in surprise and then... horror as they looked still further beyond them.

Up ahead the sky was blue. The sun shone down normally. Everything seemed fine there. Normal.

Tears welled up in my eyes.

Things would never be normal.

Never, ever again...

---

He had come. It was time.

They had had their chances.

Now they cried.

Now they pleaded.

Now they hoped.

He sneered.

In six days I made you.

In two days you'll die.

---

The three tsunamis took 24 hours to reach around the planet.

And another 24 hours to repeat the process.

Shatterday & Stunday were over… along with any future the human race had ever hoped for.