The New Dark Age

“It’s quite a sunny day today in Los Angeles California with temperatures reaching as high as 102 degrees. That’s all for now folks and remember to wear your sunscreen and bring out those sunglasses.”

7:58 Am 7 hours before the Darkness

Mom Hurry I’m gonna be late, Ugh why does she always do this. 

I opened my backpack to make sure I had my project, I for sure was gonna get an A+ on. It took me weeks and I wasn’t gonna let my mom ruin my perfect score. 

“I’m coming, sweetie,” she said.

Finally, now let’s go. I’m gonna miss my class. 

On our way to school, there was this old man at the stoplight. He had a gray beard, little to no hair dirty clothes, typical junkie he kept staring at me saying “you’ll soon be in darkness too” I didn’t know what that meant and just went on with my day, I thought nothing of it. 

I arrived at school and immediately was greeted by my best friend and project partner Ashley.

“You have the project” of course I said the self-landing rocket we called lightning was beautiful. It can lift off, land back with no parachute, and can still be fully functional. The best thing about it was it was electric hence the name lightning. Our Competition looks easy Oliva, our only threat is Tom and John, they built a solar-paneled electric car but have nothing on our rocket. The bell rang shortly after and was time for first period.

8:30 Am 6 hours and 32 minutes Before the Darkness.

Well, class today we will be learning about The Dark Ages from 476 AD - 1000 AD open to page 258. The phrase "Dark Age" itself derives from the Latin saeculum obscurum. I was too excited to listen to Mrs.Peters. Her class was super easy too. I didn’t have to listen. I went on with the school day as usual. 1st 2nd 3rd and then I went to lunch. Ashley and I were completing our finishing touches on the rocket when our physics teacher Mr. Davison greeted us and asked what our project was about. We told him we wanted to show a new way rocket transportation can be made and reused. He was very impressed with it and was excited to see it in action today. 

1:25 Pm 1 hour and 33 minutes till the darkness.

P.E was brutal today we had to run 2 miles and do a pacer test at least it was over. While waiting outside and looking at the clock the bell rang and the overhead announcement came on “any participants competing in the science fair today meet at the auditorium at 2:00.” It was 1:30 I had to run to make it and place our project there before we were disqualified. I arrived at the auditorium and I was intimidated at first by the projects. They were huge and I thought we weren’t gonna win. “The contest will be starting now everyone is to be seated and be polite to other contestants.” Project after project, score after score, the judges were tough out of 26 projects the highest score was a 23/30. Only two projects left Tom and John’s electric car and our rocket. They received a 26.5/30, we had to receive a 9 from every judge to win. Our presentation was next.

2:54 Pm 4 minute Till the darkness

 Ashley and Oliva show us your project and you have the stage. “We created a fully functional rocket that is not only electric but can also land itself with no parachute,” Ashley said. The judges seemed impressed. We headed to the roof to launch it due to the auditorium being so small. From the roof, we saw the whole city of Los Angeles. We counted down 3, 2, 1 lift- we couldn’t finish the sentence as our rocket went flying. A blackout happened in the city. Light after light, they went out till complete darkness I thought of the old man right away and his words. The staff and teachers told us to keep calm and we all did. The school had backup generators and power should be on at any second. 

37 minutes In the darkness 

No reception my mom must be worried about me. I asked Mr. Davison since he was the only teacher there I knew he said “The school has the generators up and running but no electricity, very strange.” The judges continued and rated us a 9, 8, and 10. We won first place. Ashley and Olivia were pumped. I couldn’t wait to tell mom. It was almost 7:00 by now I could see the sunset.

17 hours In the darkness 

It’s the next day and mom still hasn’t come for me and I can't walk home due to school protocol. Thankfully Ashley’s mom came and she picked me up too, still no power or sign of mom. It was dangerous and weird seeing Los Angeles like this on the streets with no stoplights and no lights at all in buildings. I returned home and mom wasn’t there nor her car. I was panicking at this point, Dad was on a business trip and wouldn’t come back for a few days. As I fell impatient I went out looking for mom, so I grabbed my skateboard and left. Many people lined up at markets for water and food. It was a wild sight to see the city like this. I overheard a construction worker say “power won’t be back for a while” and saw a car crash ahead so I passed by to check it out. I cried that moment. I saw my mother’s lifeless body laying there on the pavement dead. I knew 100% it was her because of the silky smooth blond hair and the 2019 white Lexus Suv. She had crashed into a power line. Responsible for the outage, I wanted to tell her so bad that I won. I felt like I was left in the darkness just by myself with no one to comfort me. Police could not find any evidence on what caused the crash in her car besides her sunglasses and a bottle of sunscreen.