The Final Push

Being The Final Push is like being a little bit of a celebrity.

“Hey! The Final Push!” An unknown man yells on the street. 

“That’s him.” Others whisper.

Of course, I agreed to do this with my life, what it would mean for the rest of my life and it just sucks that it’s on my watch The Final Push might actually have to blow himself up to save the Final Colony Outpost.

For generations, The Final Push has been in my family, with many before me living out long, heroic, yet uneventful lives. My father was The Final Push when the comet actually hit but passed it along to me a couple years after the first cases started.

And now that the big order has been given to abandon and retreat to the moon, my destiny to stay behind and hit the self-destruct explosion button has been sealed. Earlier in the year, multiple outpost colonies had self-destructed because they had been hacked by The Goop’s human drones. Therefore, all self-destructions are offline. Someone has to be there for the Final Push of the button after as many people that can escape do escape. I get to flick the off switch so the enemy can’t follow us. The Final Push was actually a pretty sweet gig until the end of civilization actually happened.

The retreat to the moon is a very new development, not known by the public. The Goop has taken over the world. Using its mix of biology and AI brought together with a mysterious power from the comet, all of humanity's cities and governments have been toppled by a goop that takes control of animals and plants. It’s a very fluid situation but I can’t say anything about it until it goes public in 6 hours. I have to bite my tongue as I go through my minor celebrity of a day.

So I decided to go eat lunch at my favorite outpost restaurant. A little depressed from finding out I have to blow myself up, and not being able to get my favorite seat at the bar, put me in a sour mood. But then a fan arrived.

“Final Push guy right?” An out of uniform military cadet questioned.

I turned to him, smiling and nodded like ‘you got me’.

He continued and I soaked it in. I needed an ego boost. 

“You’re really going to stay behind for all of us? That’s so brave. Thank you, sir. For your sacrifice.”

A man overheard and asked me my name. When I told him, he was thrilled cause they had already named the Elementary School on the moon after me and his daughter would be attending there next fall.

“That’s great.” I reply. 

By now two more people had gathered over in my space and I seemed to be running out of fresh air. I really just wanted to order my food now. This attention wasn’t what I wanted after all. All it did was remind me of what I had to do. Luckily, an attractive woman sits next to me and runs interference. It’s like she can read my mind and she hands me my favorite drink. And then breaking news appeared everywhere. The order to retreat and abandon the Final Colony Outpost had been leaked. Now all the public knew. 

“Daaang.” The military cadet says looking away from the breaking news and at me. “Sucks to be you.” Then he made his hands re-enact an explosion. 

My new female friend threw someone else’s shoe and hit the cadet in the face, knocking him backwards.

“Who are you?” I ask. 

She leans in to kiss me but is shot in the head by a SWAT officer’s rifle. I look down and what should be red blood is black goop. She is a human goop drone! Their methods are getting more advanced. 

I am armed-escorted to the building that contains the button. I take a strange pleasure in the button being really a big, red button. At least there will be a weird satisfaction in pushing it. Or hitting it. Or punching it. I guess I never really thought of how I would press the button. I could go silly, dirty, head-butt it even. 

A scientist in a lab coat meets me in the hallway before entering the Button Zone.

“I just want to say how honored I am to have met you, sir. Your whole family is an inspiration to us all. Right this way.”

I nod politely but it’s starting to sink in...this is getting real. 

The outer doors open. The inner hallway is lined with portraits of all the Final Pushers leading up to me. After my semi-lavish lifestyle living off the government, it’s finally time to pay the piper.

Breaking News appears everywhere. The Goop has successfully infiltrated the outpost. They show a picture of the attractive woman who gave me my favorite drink before getting shot in the head. The news describes her as a Gloop drone and announces that anyone can be a drone.

I enter the Button Room. There it is, the big, red button. Everyone salutes me and leaves me in the room alone. Both sets of doors close and I’m locked and sealed. A countdown clock ticks down. The clock reads 4 hours and counting. The news reports riots and anarchy. The public is finally getting a glimpse into the ugly truth.

The lights flicker. I immediately notice the countdown clock has skipped ahead 3 hours! It’s now under an hour before the Button is to be pushed. But what happened? Is this real or am I hacked?! I am cut off from all communication within this room. 

The clock’s countdown skips again! 10 minutes and counting! What do I do? I hit the button too early according to plan I kill thousands of people still trying to escape; hit it too late and the Goop can follow to the moon and the war continues!

Clock skips again to 6 minutes... then 2 minutes! Then the power goes out completely and I’m in complete darkness except for the lit up red button. I use my phone’s flashlight to check the rest of my surroundings. 

And just like that, the power and lights come back on. The clock is back but at 30 seconds. But do I even trust it? There was nothing in the training about this. 

10 seconds.

I reach out, holding my hand above the button. Power outage again! Blackness!

I count down in my head.

Only the clock of madness appears out of the abyss. I Push the Button. The countdown reads just under 3 hours.

The End