The day the sun fell

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire.

I woke up, smoke filling my lungs, the hot air around me making my hair stick to my sweat covered forehead. My eyes filled with tears as my throat burned, the stinging like swallowing a rose covered in thorns. This wasn't the first time I have woken up like this, and it wouldn't be the last.

I coughed harshly, knowing no one would hear, my feet hit the floor and I stumbled out of my bed, through the doorway, and down the stairs.

The day had come, and soon, we would all go up in flames.

I knew what the flames meant. Today was the day that we either fled our homes, or died. The fireball in the sky, some say that humanity used to refer to it as the "sun". A hundred years ago, it fell out of space's gravitational pull and started falling directly at us. Now, it was so close to the surface that everything was always burning.

We stopped calling it the sun a long time ago. When people called it that, they depended on it, and it brought them light and hope. Now, it only causes pain and destruction. We weren't supposed to make it to fall, now that we have, I wish that we hadn't. I ran outside, the large maple tree that sat in front of our house, was reduced to nothing but ash.

Everything was burning, houses, all of the lawns. I stepped off my porch, the flames that engulfed the streets licked at my skin. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew by, making the fire jump higher, and completely cover my arm. I bit my lip and tried not to scream, in attempt to silence the pain that tried to come out of my mouth. I tasted blood and tears ran down my face.

I had to keep moving.

I held my arm and scanned around me, looking for people and grimacing at the large burn that was now blistering on my forearm. The pain, I can't even describe it. When I didn't see anyone, I turned to go back to my car. That's when I saw the shadow in the sky, I knew that shadow all too well. I started running, the houses across the street had children in them. I saw one of them open the door, a little girl, Ivy, I think her name was. Only six years old, I pumped my arms, desperately trying to reach her, before it was too late,

"IVY GET OUT OF THERE!"

She looked alarmed and I heard her yelling to her family before running towards me. We met in the middle and I scooped her up into my arms, bolting back towards my home. I was almost there, maybe ten feet from my porch, when the asteroid hit. The explosion threw me sideways, I slammed into a nearby car and cried out, landing on the ground. I had landed on my back, to be sure that Ivy wouldn't be injured in anyway.

Holding her close, I tried to silence her screams, as we ran away from her burning house, her family hadn't made it out in time. I ran to my car and practically threw her into the seat,

"Stay here! I'll be right back."

She nodded and continued to cry, silently this time, which just made it more heartbreaking. I buckled her in and slammed the door, running back into my house and grabbing my evac duffels before running back to the car. Fumbling to get my keys into the ignition and starting it, I drove away as quickly as I could. I felt the vibrations shock through my body as another asteroid hit.

We were lucky that the asteroids hadn't reached the largest size that they would get. Any bigger then they were now, and the whole town would be wiped out.

The only way that we would live, is if I made it to the wetlands, which was imperative right now, Ivy was the most important thing to me. More than myself. I had to make it there. Ivy would not grow up the way that I had to, orphaned and alone. Not knowing if she would live to the next day. I swerved the steering wheel to avoid a giant crater, the asteroids wouldn't stop. They would only get bigger. The only option was to try to escape.

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"Saran, go hunt while we have time."

I looked up from cleaning my gun, my mother was always pushing me to the forest. Even when we had enough food, she was so scared that Armageddon would happen again. We hadn't even been above ground when it happened, so we don't actually know what destroyed the earth. It's only been us since we came up from our bunker. I sighed and stood up,

"On it."

We lived in a waste land, the town that had been there before was completely wiped out, the woods was the only spot that we could get resources. There were giant craters in the earth, and nothing left but ashes. Asteroids were the only thing that could've caused that.

It was hard sometimes, being a boy and only ever having a girl as company. I managed, I've gotten used to it. Seeing as I hadn't seen another living soul since we got trapped under ground. We were inspecting our bunker, dad had insisted on building it. When he locked us in, telling us that he loved us and he was sorry. We hadn't seen him since. It was three years before the lock clicked open. When we emerged, all of human life had been reduced to nothing but smoke and fire.

Heading out into the woods, my thoughts raced as I pulled my hood over my head and scanned the trees, I was looking for animals, but what I found, would change everything.

As I was looking, I saw a glass bottle. Covered in ashes, and what looked like the remains of leaves. I bent and picked it up, there was a slip of paper inside. I carefully grabbed it out from the bottle. Unrolling it with shaky hands and shining my flashlight over it, reading.

If anyone is reading this, and you are close to what used to be Jacksonville Florida, my name is Theta Nightshade. I am a survivor, alongside Ivy Mason. It has been eight years since we ran, if there are any other survivors, please. We've been alone for so long, and we refuse to believe that we are all that is left. It all started, a hundred and eight years ago, on the day that the sun fell. If you can, find us, please. We need you.

The paper dropped out of my hand and I fell to my knees, we weren't alone. There were more of us, survivors. I couldn't believe it. I ran back to my house as fast as I could, screaming to my mother. No matter where they were, or how long it took to find them. We would find them, we had to, or else we might be alone forever.