Blue Moon

by Rod Drake

No media notice was necessary because everyone on earth could see the whole thing as it happened – an asteroid the size of Australia hit the moon and broke it apart, sending huge continent-size chunks hurling toward us, less than two days away. Not enough time to try and deflect them, and too many big fragments anyway, plus the oceans and weather are in an uproar without the moon’s gravitational pull to regulate them, so missile launches are out of the question as time quickly runs out. Funny, it wasn’t terrorism or nuclear war or global warming or any of the endless things that we were afraid would end life on earth and destroy the planet itself, just a random rock flying through space. Communications are spotty at best now, due to the severe weather storms, so everyone is pretty much on their own as the moon fragments loom larger in the sky each passing hour. Most people are panicking, and I guess this is the right time to panic if there ever was one; I’m sure lots are praying like they have never prayed before to whatever god they worship, hoping that he/she/it hears them this time. As for me, well, I just want to make it on foot to Emma’s house through all the confusion in the streets and increasingly bad weather so that I can be with her, and we can await the end together, keeping each other amused and loved as though nothing else in the world mattered.

6S

Rod Drake, despite rumors to the contrary, is not working as an Elvis impersonator in Las Vegas. He is however the author of Chalk in the Rain. Check out his longer stories in Flashes of Speculation, Fictional Musings, Flash Flooding, Flash Forward and MicroHorror.