The Blue Flame

The Blue Flame

   By: Paul Carney     

Soon after Grim and The Reaper started to take over the Earth, reports started filtering in about how ruthless they actually were. It was said that the conquest of these two super powered aliens with weird “V” shaped scars on their chests started with them blowing up their entire home planet. Like so many people around the world, I watched in horror as they started to destroy our world one city at a time. It all seemed hopeless as the death tolls climbed into the millions. As families and communities gathered together to pray and tend to one another, it would seem that all anyone could hope for was for it all to be over quickly. Unfortunately, we were not so lucky. Grim and The Reaper toyed with us for weeks. They would destroy an entire city in under an hour and then wouldn’t be seen for days. It was torture. There were no demands or manifestos and any thoughts about what was motivating their attacks were purely speculative. We were all doing our best to enjoy our last moments with the people we loved. There was no point in evacuating, as these two monsters came without warning and there was no discernable pattern to where they would strike next. 

While we all waited on our inevitable demise, my family and I headed over to my best friend Cole’s house to make dinner with him and his family. I had known Cole since we were in kindergarten. Our friendship had its ups and downs but through it all our bond became stronger with each passing year. Cole and I were both stubborn people and neither of us lied or gave in just to please the other. If Cole didn’t like the girl I was dating, he would let me know and If I thought the sneakers that Cole was wearing were ugly then I would tell him. On the other hand, neither of us had the stereotypical macho, no sharing feelings thing going on either. We didn’t just know how much we cared about each other, we told each other and showed each other, often. Everytime we saw each other we hugged and when we needed to we told the other one that we loved them. It was the type of friendship that other people were envious of and one that we were grateful for. We were opposites in many ways. Cole was chill and laid back and had an uncanny ability to calmly roll with any situation. I was driven by pure emotion and passion which lead to frequent spats of impulsivity and the occasional hot headed episode. Cole liked to play it safe and I was more of a risk taker, and please don’t even get me started on our differences in musical tastes. At the end of the day none of those differences mattered because at our core, the one thing that Cole and I could always hang our hat on is that we both treasured loyalty to those we cared about above all. We both knew that we would always have each others back. There was no contract needed, no handshake or discussion. It was just a fact that we would stand by each other until the very end of time, which for all intents and purposes we all thought was going to be sooner rather than later.

Cole’s family lived on a farm just outside of town that was surrounded by acres and acres of woods. As our families were in the house prepping a meal, Cole and I did what we always did, hiked through the woods and down to the nearby stream. It was one of my favorite places in the world. When we were there we would just hang out for hours at a time. We built forts when we were younger and as we got older we did more fishing. It was equal parts exciting and relaxing. On this particular day, we were just casually skipping some rocks while we waited for dinner to be done. It was a beautiful day and it was nice just to be outside soaking up the sun. “Do you think your mom is going to make those roasted potatoes again,” Cole asked. “I friggin hope so,’ I replied. “I sure would like to taste those things one more time before we die,” Cole responded. “Dude, don’t think like that,” I exclaimed. “The human race has overcome a lot of shit. Granted we have never faced super powered aliens before, but we will figure out a way to survive, we always do,” I demanded. “I hear ya man and I’m not trying to be Debbie Downer here, I’ve just made peace with the fact that our end is coming soon. I’m not afraid of it or rushing it, I’m just OK with it whenever it happens,” Cole expressed in the calm and relaxing way that only he could. “I don’t know man, I just wish there was some way we could go down fighting. It’s killing me just sitting here waiting. Why couldn’t we have faced the zombie apocalypse? Now that would have been cool, I would have loved to friggin’ waste some zombies before I got taken out,” I responded passionately. “Well, who knows, maybe you will get your chance somehow. Maybe the two douche hats flying around the sky will send hordes of intergalactic zombie aliens to do their dirty work for them,” Cole replied jokingly. We both got a good chuckle at that.  

A half an hour passed and I decided to sit on the ground and lay back. I was hoping to do a little daydreaming about attacking potential zombie aliens when I saw glowing blue streaks flash across the sky. It all happened so fast but also felt like it was in slow motion. The streaks hurtled towards earth. There were so many of them that it was impossible to even count how many there were. All of sudden we started to hear explosions in the distance. One sounded like it came from the directions of Cole’s house. Cole and I ran back to the house as fast as we could. When we got there we thankfully saw both of our families standing on the back deck looking at the destruction in some of the nearby fields. The air was filled with smoke and the land was a sea of blue flames. Luckily it seemed like the blue streaks had stopped. It appeared that the worst was over. I couldn’t believe what we all just saw and I stood in amazement staring out onto the fields as Cole approached the deck to check on his family. Cole must have been about 20 feet from the house when another blue streak shot down from the sky and directly hit Cole’s house. The explosion was blinding and so loud. It rocked me to my core and knocked me to the ground. When I tried to stand, I wobbled and fell back down to one knee. It felt like I had gone 12 rounds with Tyson. I shook the cobwebs out of my head and took a slow deep breath. Slowly my senses started coming back to me. As my vision came into focus I was able to see Cole lying about 100 yards from me. He looked badly injured. The site of him snapped me back into action. My senses and faculties were all suddenly back on and elevated as if someone flipped on a light switch with a cattle prod. I yelled his name and ran to him. When I got to him, what I saw stopped me in my tracks. 

Cole was laying on the ground, his abdomen was covered in blood and the wound was emanating a bright blue light. I forced myself to unfreeze and knelt down to put pressure on the wound. When I placed my hand on the wound I had to recoil back in pain as the blue light scorched my skin. As I regained my composure to get back in to position to help Cole when I heard him cough and then say, “are you going to lie there all day or are you going to help me up?” “Cole! What the heck man? How the heck are you not dead,” I questioned. Cole straightened and replied, “I don’t know man, just get me up so we can go check on our families.” My jaw dropped. I asked myself if Cole realized how much of a direct hit his house took. “Cole, I think they are all gone,” I said. “What do you mean all gone?” Cole asked. “Turn your head man, there is a crater engulfed in blue flames where the house used to be,” I yelled. “So!” Cole shouted back. “I have this big friggin hole in my stomach and I’m still standing...sort of. They could’ve survived too,” Cole said hopefully. “Just get me up and we will get as close as we can” Cole said in a rather directive fashion.  

           I helped Cole up and bore most of the weight of his body as we slowly crept towards the crater that used to be Cole’s house. Interestingly enough, it seemed like Cole needed less and less of my support with each step. When we got near, we started shouting out the names of our parents and our brothers and sisters. No one answered and it became more clear that no one survived, in fact nothing survived. There was no wreckage or any sign that a house even existed here. Everything was eviscerated. Disintegrated even. It was so weird, there wasn’t even any splintered boards or burning furniture, it was just all gone, turned to a pile of ash. As reality set in and we both started to feel the weight of the situation we crumpled into each other's arms, both of us sobbing uncontrollably. As I started to mourn the loss of my parents and my brother and sister, I couldn't shake one nagging question from my thoughts. I even felt guilty about thinking about anything else other than the loss of my loved ones. But, as much as I tried to push the question to the back of my mind, it kept forcing itself forward. This one damn nagging question. I kept asking it to myself over and over, “if these blue whatevers completely wiped an entire house out of existence then how the hell is Cole still walking around with a piece of it lodged in his stomach?” Before I could even ask the question Cole started to tremble. I could tell that he was gritting his teeth and fighting off some pain. But, it must not have been pain that he was feeling, it had to have been something else because he shouted, “MOVE!,” and shoved me out of the way. When I looked up, Cole was gone. I stood up and instantly started to shout his name. “COLE!! COLE!! WHERE ARE YOU?!!” I yelled. I spun around in circles looking for my best friend, I was in a panic. Then I heard a voice from above say, “Hey dummy, look up.” As I looked up I saw a being, hovering in the sky, made entirely of blue flames. “Cole?!,” I asked. “Hell yeah bro!” He replied. He then struck his arm out and shot from it a ball of blue flaming energy. It struck a nearby tree making it disappear in a fiery explosion. He looked back at me, grinned and said, “I think Grim and The Reaper just became the zombies!”