ARMAGEDDON

Dan was a man caught between frustration and resignation. His reflection stared back at him, hollow-eyed and tight-jawed, as he sat with his head leaning against the glass window, watching the blur of passengers filing into the train as their voices formed a distant hum in his ears.

He had spent the last year juggling nearly five part-time jobs, scraping together every bit of dignity and ambition he could muster to prove himself. All of it—every sleepless night, every penny saved—had been for her.

But none of it had mattered.

The memory of Lauren's parents was still fresh, like a bruise that wouldn’t fade. Just days ago, he stood awkwardly in their pristine living room, wearing the one decent shirt he owned, hoping this time would be different.

But the polite smiles had quickly turned into contempt, and before he could even defend himself, her father’s words had cut deeper than any blade,

"You’ll never be good enough for our daughter, Dan. Stay away from her."

And then, the door—slammed in his face, along with any hope he clung to.

Now, here he was, sitting on NovaTech’s brand-new cross-city speed train, their latest groundbreaking innovation. This sleek, cutting-edge marvel was supposed to symbolize progress, a new era of transportation. But to Dan, it just felt like another reminder of how far behind he was in life.

He hadn’t even planned on being here, but winning the ticket in a random giveaway felt like a cosmic joke he couldn’t ignore. Maybe, just maybe, this would be his chance to prove something—not just to Lauren’s parents, but to himself.

If he could witness this technological triumph firsthand, maybe it would be a small step toward showing he wasn’t just some broke nobody.

But not everyone shared his enthusiasm.

The Blackout Collectives had made sure of that. For weeks, their warnings had been plastered across every corner of the city—graffiti scrawled on walls, shadowy forums buzzing with conspiracy theories, and masked protesters chanting about the hidden dangers of NovaTech's innovations.

They claimed the technology was unstable, a ticking time bomb disguised as progress. But no one took them seriously. They were just another fringe group, dismissed as paranoid extremists standing in the way of innovation.

Dan exhaled slowly, trying to push the noise out of his mind as the last passengers settled in. The train doors hissed shut, sealing everyone inside, and the low hum of the engine vibrated beneath his feet.

Everything seemed to be going smooth for the first few minutes, not until it happened.

A slight tremor ran through the whole vehicle, sending a wave of unease over everyone.There was no guarantee that the train was a hundred percent safe after all.

A second tremor rocked the train, this one more serious than the former, yanking Dan out of his thoughts. He looked around and could almost hear everyone's racing hearts as the train accelerated rapidly.

“ It's a ‘speed train’, it's supposed to be fast.” He said to the lady sitting beside him in order to calm her down. Even though she tried to maintain her composure, her fast paced breathing gave her away.

Dan certainly wasn't used to this kind of hassle either, but this adrenaline rush felt like the perfect drug for the misery he was suffering from. Even then, a smile drew across his face as he watched everyone else stiffen up, terrified for their lives. For some reason, he thought it was hilarious.

The train had now clocked 400 miles per hour and was still climbing. This time, incessant vibrations rattled the entire vehicle and no one could pretend to have it all together anymore.

“ Mommy, what's happening? Are we gonna be okay?” A child behind Dan asked.

“ That doesn't feel right,” Dan muttered, his brows slightly furrowed, his eyes searching, and his fingers clutching on to the arms of his chair. For the first time since the journey began, Dan was worried for his life.

“Please keep your seatbelts on, we're only two minutes to arrival ,” said a gentle feminine voice from the speakers, as if completely oblivious of the fact that there was an earthquake in the vehicle.

That was hard to believe. They had only been roughly fifteen minutes on the journey and now they were only two minutes to arrival. To think that this was a journey that would take at least two hours by land.

“ Well I guess they call it a speed train for a reason,” Dan said, chuckling pretentiously, hoping to douse the tension in the air, but that didn't seem to be working.

Everyone was too busy hanging tightly unto something like their lives depended on it. The smile on Dan's face quickly vanished when he heard the words,

“ Brace for impact ! Brace for impact ! “

“ What…!?” Dan yelled as screams echoed throughout the chamber. His heart sank into his stomach and his eyes widened as commotion erupted all over the place.

It was obvious there was no way anyone would survive this. ‘ Impact ‘? For a vehicle moving at such an insane speed? Dan only hoped his death would be as quick and painless as possible.

He checked his phone for the day's date and it read, 2nd May, 2025 - a date that waa about to become his death day.

A very bright light filled the train, and that was the last thing Dan remembered seeing before everywhere suddenly went dark.

All Dan could see now was pitch blackness. A gentle breeze blew over and against his face, filling his lungs with smoke and dust, and all he could hear was nothing but pin drop silence, as his consciousness slowly rose to the surface.

His eyes popped open and he jerked up to a sitting posture with a sharp gasp. He looked around in confusion before it suddenly occurred to him that he had just been in an accident, a fatal one at that.

He grabbed his black secondhand blazers and felt other parts of his body with his palms in shock that he was still in one piece, his lips parted and his breathing heavy. He had not yet realized where he was.

“ I'm… I'm alive,” he whispered sharply, almost getting excited, “ but how?” He muttered to himself, questioning his reality.

He looked around him again and was thunder struck with shock at the sight before his eyes - a sight he never thought he'd ever see.

Before his eyes were cars wrecked and littered all over the streets. A choking smell from the many burnt buildings around filled the air. The streets were empty - the whole place was empty.

Where the hell am I? What is this place? Dan thought.

Dan took a few steps forward and found himself at a cross junction. His eyes fell on a building, which though badly damaged, looked awfully familiar. After a hard stare at it, he recognized the partly burnt banner dangling off it with a writing that read,

‘ BENNY'S BURGER’.

Dan's eyes widened and his lips parted all the more when it all finally dawned on him. He knew exactly where he was . It didn't make sense but all the details were undeniable.

Somehow, Daniel Foster was back in SEAL CITY.

What happened? Where is everyone? He wondered, his eyes searching through the wreckage. This was definitely the strangest day of his life, at least, yet.