2099; All Lights Out

Hyacinth the Pious

"Don't call me back. You made your choice and I've made mine." Hyacinth said in her British accent angrily as she hung up her transparent beautifully curved hologram mobile device which immediately erased the pixels-in-person image that it projected from it.

198 days earlier

"Are you sure we can't get you to change your mind, Hyacinth?" Dolly asked her daughter with care as she sat at the edge of her bed.

"I've made up my mind, mum. I'm not going to Mars. That's not what God would want" Hyacinth audaciously replied her mum.

"Are you really going to miss out on the very first amazing thing that has happened to man's history in so long because your Bible tells you so?" Dolly asked with an irritated glance towards Hyacinth's face. 

"Yes, mum. Have a nice time outside of God's Earth. Mars needs you, a whole lot more than I do. I'll be just fine." Hyacinth retorted as she got up to look outside her room's window.

Hyacinth was an 18 year old religious Christian from a very wealthy family, and the only child, too. Her daddy was the Chief Operations Officer at Elon Musk's Space X company. She was always content with little, given her great belief in her God and how well He had her interest in His heart.

This Mars' expedition was to be the first one intended for population of the new planet with long-time plans for its survival and man's new abode. She was not in any way interested in the idea or the reality that only about a thousand people who could afford it would be able to escape the already "dying planet Earth".

Following the Third World War (2049-2052), more than 3/4th of the human population had been exterminated by either biological weapons of Europe whose presence in the atmosphere hit Africa the most, nuclear missiles of Asia, Chemical weapons of mass destruction of the US. As of 2098, the human population was estimated to be around 1.9 billion with hunger on the increase and the worst ever economic depression and the worst hit were the poor and average families.

It was a Saturday and Hyacinth was reading her paperback Bible which she inherited from her grandmother, as many of this book were either lost to the infernos of war or the advancement of times and technology.

With her head towards her laps where she placed her Bible as she sat like a Buddhist monk on her bed, she traced the words with her fingers. She looked up for a moment as her favourite song, Hillsong's "Lead me to the Cross" shuffled its way to her speakers on the table. She let out a warm smile as she enjoyed the melody and the lyrics of this band which she wished she had been born to see perform.

"Skkkr, krrr" The music sounded like a slithering crack and she wore a face of "worrisome surprise" as she heard it. She returned to her Bible and she read out loud a part that was highlighted by her Grandmother; "…all things work together for those who Love the Lord". She let out a confident smile as she had no doubt that this was God reassuring her of His power as long as her love was in place.

"Vvvvzzooonoonnm" The sound resonated throughout her room, the neighbourhood and her house as the walls trembled too with these vibrations. All lights went out, the speaker went mute and nothing was working. 

"Lexila, what's happening?" Hyacinth asked her AI hologram device with a hint of worry in her tone. She waited for a few seconds that felt like torture but got no reply. 

Her Bible flipped a number of pages very fast and this further heightened the creepiness that surrounded it all. She picked up the Bible and put it gently towards the left side of her bed as she tried to get out of bed.

Up from her bed already, she leant towards her table where her Hologram device was at and felt it, touched it a number of times but got no response.

"Gggaaann" Hyacinth heard this loud distant crash that made her fear levels heighten beyond control. Her left hands were shaking and she instantly placed her right hand on her chest trying to reassure herself that nothing was wrong.

"What could possibly be wrong?" She muttered some words that sounded like Bible verses as she walked towards her glass window which was covered by a Cotton-Silk curtain. She had not had any reasons to open it herself as Lexila always did that for her automatically when she asked.

As she raised her right hand and pulled the curtain towards the right, she saw nothing. Nothing but what seemed like a huge burning shapeless inter-galactic ball wrapped in fire that had razed a lot of houses and many more while she stared. She was in shock as she saw people running and being burnt by this fast-travelling fire.

She looked up to heaven with her eyes breathing more than her nostrils and God was not there. There was no Sun or Moon like she had always seen or like God had promised.

What was this? Was this Hell?