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“Edward, Al, Granny!” I shout. “Dinner’s ready!”
“...” I sigh, accepting the silence that filled the room. Ed and Al were probably in their room obsessively studying. It was uncharacteristic for Granny though, especially considering she was the one who had asked me to finish dinner tonight.
‘Whatever, they can eat it cold,’ I thought bitterly. Its not like it was that late anyways, just 9:00 PM or so on a sunday. There couldn’t have been enough time in the world.
I consider just calling it quits and retiring for the night–school would start early tomorrow morning, and the dryness in the air made my eyes weak and bleary. What an insufferable season.
“We have breaking news folks–this is an emergency ordered by the government. Please tune in.” The T.V. suddenly blasted. I could’ve sworn it had not been on before, not to mention that no one else was downstairs but me.
Perhaps the government could just… turn it on? She’d think about that later.
I lazily sit on the couch. Whatever the emergency is, it must not be that important, considering today was very average, and the weather was the same as it had been all summer. Hot, boring, and humid. Probably warnings of a heatwave incoming…
“It's very unfortunate I have to say this, but the world is going to end today,” said our country’s leader, as a tear rolled down his face.
_____________________
It was almost laughable, what Winry was hearing. Truly, she felt silly for even letting the words shock her for a second. Perhaps it was late night television satire, even though it hadn’t quite passed 10:00 PM.
Every channel played the same thing, albeit different news stations. Images of people in agony flashed on screen. Their horrified gazes looked too real, too genuine to be just some plot for a comedy skit.
Then, a photo was shown. It wasn’t unlike the others, just pictures of people screaming and crying, hugging their loved ones for dear life. But this time, a familiar store Winry often went to was in the background.
This wasn’t a joke.
“Ed! Al!” Winry yells. This is the worst time for them not to be answering her. “Granny?”
She frowns at her final attempt to get any response. No doubt, whatever was happening outside wasn’t just some strange event of mass hysteria. This was truly an ending world.
Winry tugged her sock up as she hopped down the steps of her porch. She almost considered going back inside–it was such a normal day. The summer’s humidity clings to her skin and dusk had broken, turning the sky a violet blue. From the way people were panicking, you’d think it had fallen. Yet nothing had really indicated that.
However there was something very wrong with the world right now, and against all the signs that there wasn’t, she marched forward, slipping on her headphones.
Walking along the block to the center of town, all you could surely hear was the wuthering of the wind against the tiny houses along the road, or maybe some children playing.
Their screaming was no longer a result of happiness, but rather one of death.
Winry hesitated. ‘If the world truly is ending, do I really want to see this?’ She asks herself for a moment. She’d much rather bury her head into the electronic sounds of video games, or cry herself to an eternal sleep.
The artist’s voice singing in her ear suddenly came to a buzzing halt. Static replaced it.
“What the hell–!” Winry cursed, pulling one side of it off before promptly pausing at the sound of her own voice.
“You wish to survive, yes?”
Winry’s hand trembled as she brought the left side of her headphone back to her ear. This had to all be a dream.
“Then go–run, for that hill. For better or worse, you can find out the truth.” Her voice advises. “You haven’t long, hurry!”
She stumbles slightly before dashing into main street, bumping into people on the crowded path. People’s terrified faces shone in the moonlight–a young girl sobbing, a priest praying, and a man holding his child. Rioters filled the streets, having no where to direct their anger to. Their screaming and crying shot past the barrier of Winry’s headphones. She wished to cover her eyes as well, she couldn’t bare to see of all of this.
She hated seeing the now destroyed computer repair shop that her good friend owned.
“40 seconds left.” Her voice told her in a somber tone.
“How convenient,” Winry sarcastically replied, digging her feet into the soil of the hill.
From this high, she could look over Resembool. Smoke from fires across the town covered up the pale moon. News helicopters circled the skies. Everything was falling apart.
“30 seconds.”
A tear rolled down Winry’s cheek as she turned on her heel and began to race further up the hill. She had to see the top of it, she had to find out what was causing all of this. Worlds don’t just ‘end,’ they’re not objects of glass.
Gravity weighed down on her weakened muscles, and her head had the sounds of the horrified repeating in her head. Pounding, pounding, screaming, just a few more steps.
“10 seconds.”
Winry stared at the scientists in front of her, not sure what to think at all. Their white lab coats swayed in the wind, almost holding an intimidating presence.
“Well done,” A taller one says, smiling. “I wasn’t expecting this. Perhaps a sole survivor could be just what we need.”
“You–what?” Winry turns to face Resembool. From there, she could see it was all just some closed in mirage. The tiny world she had thought to be her everything was all fake. Every life, home, existence, it was all planned out.
She let out a scream as it was all suddenly bombed, plumes of smoke floating from a hellscape of fire and ruins. Edward, Alphonse, Granny… Everyone…
The wind stopped, the air lost its humidity, and the moon shattered along with her world.
‘Ah, none of it was real at all,’ She mused, as tears filled her eyes, a needle prodding into her skin.
“I’m sorry,” the voice from her headphones murmured.