Solar Flare

Night of 2/8/11
We are in a house. It’s a big house with lots of windows. I am there with my younger brother, David, and my dog, Denali. The world is ending. It’s like the movie "Knowing" where [spoilers] there is going to be a giant solar flare that will blast away the ozone layer and kill everyone. Just as in the movie, the radiation will reach as deep as a mile below the earth's crust. There is nowhere to go. I don’t know where anyone is. David is laying on the couch, watching tv. The president and those higher up in the government are going to an underground bunker, 2 miles below the surface. I wonder what the point is. I would rather be blasted away than live underground and eventually die of dehydration or starvation or who knows what.

The sky is a weird color. Amber, golden. It looks like sunrise. I go in the basement and sit on a recliner chair. I pull my legs up and hold my knees my chest. What is dying like? It’s getting hot. I can feel my skin burning. Exactly like getting a sunburn. I realize Denali is upstairs. How could I have left her? I run up the stairs. She is lying by the back door, curled up, looking outside. “Nali!” I call to her. She trots up to me and I kneel down to pet her and look in her brown eyes. She doesn’t seem worried. She has no idea. I ask David if he wants to come to the basement. He leans up from the couch, his skin reddening. “No, it doesn’t make a difference. I kinda want to watch it happen.” The television is bars of color, getting more distorted by the second. I pick up Denali. She puts her head against my neck. There is a glow on the horizon. David stands up and moves toward a window. I hold Denali firmly and start to cry. My heart starts pounding and my adrenaline shoots through the roof as the glow gets brighter and brighter, blazing amber colored with streaks of gold and orange in the sky. My skin feels like it is on fire, it’s so red and starting to blister. It’s time. I shut my eyes at the last second.