Rapture Chronicles (Tom's story)

May 13

We lost again, though 5-4 isn’t too bad. Went 1-3 with a double and finally got a stolen base. Made routine plays at second (nothing impressive like last game). Tom came home today. He’s back for just a couple of days before he goes back to Cali to keep looking for a job. I think he’s just slacking since he graduated from college last year. He’s said that he wants to do something meaningful but I wish he would just move back home and find a job here so he can help out too. It’s getting hard taking care of both Mom and Laura (though she could probably start helping with some of the chores now that she’s starting intermediate). Oh, and coach still remembers him though he always just brings up how Tom quit the team his senior year. He’s still never told me why

 May 14

I’m scared. It feels like the first time I’ve actually felt fear. And yet with it comes….I don’t know how to describe it…is it relief? It’s the end of the world and can I actually be feeling calm? We all saw, heard, felt it (I don’t know what word describes it). We were all sitting in front of the tv this morning and suddenly its like the entire living room disappeared into darkness and there was just this man I think it was a man and he said the world was coming to an end and we had just one week to prepare ourselves. What can I possibly do to prepare? And still I feel like there’s something I need to do. I know its stupid to think that when the sky outside is black with clouds and I swear its like a lightning show. Mom and Laura just sat on the couch after it was over. Tom went to his room without a word. Nothing. What the hell?! I don’t know what he’s going to do, but he better come outside soon and help. The wind is starting to rattle the windows and I should board them up soon. Hopefully its just a hoax and we can all just get back to our normal lives. Maybe the storm is just a coincidence too

May 15

Tom ran away. That bastard ran away with those people. They said they were going to stop the Apocalypse. That the guy Jack was their leader. He had a “dream” which told him how to save them all, us all, that it was his calling to stop the Apocalypse or some shit like that. They said he was their hero, their savior. I don’t trust him. How could they believe that? That just the 7 or 8 of them could stop the end of the world. Half of them already looked like they were on the verge of death and they said they still had miles to go. How could they think they had a chance against something which could control the weather, that could destroy humanity? It was too big. And Tom just went with them. He packed a duffel bag and just left with them. What chance does he think he has? He can barely find a job. He told me to take care of Mom and Laura, which is exactly what I’ve been doing THIS WHOLE FUCKING TIME! “It’s all I can do” he said. That’s stupid. He could do so much more by staying. I don’t know if I can still do this on my own

 May 18

I’m scared. Mom won’t let me leave the house after we barricaded the door with the couch. Tomorrow I’m gonna put up boards on the doors and windows like I saw other people doing. I can see buildings on fire from my window only two blocks away. When we went out this morning, everything looked fine and normal. Well, besides the sky (getting even darker now and the red lightning?) and the people (families packed close together on the sidewalk) it was normal. Mom and I grabbed a couple things from the store and as we reached to grab a case of bottled water some guy came out of nowhere and grabbed it right from my Mom’s hands. I mean, like he just snatched it and when she yelled, he just yelled back and took off running, screaming something about “The End.” It wasn’t even the last case, but as we tried to grab another we were swarmed by shopping carts and screaming people reaching and piling on as many cases as they could before bolting out the door. Tom should’ve been here. He should’ve been the one to go with her. I couldn’t do anything, anything to make her feel safe, to gather the things that we needed. I don’t understand, they were all perfectly fine just a minute before. Did they all finally just snap? When we got outside, every shop was covered with shattered glass and there were even a couple people lying in the street. We didn’t stop. We couldn’t. We just ran. It was all we could do

May 20

The electricity finally went out like I knew it would. For some reason the water is running. It’s quiet outside, and from the cracks between the boards I can’t tell if anything is going on outside. I’ve been using the small propane grill to heat up our food but I need to force Mom and Laura to eat sometimes. They still won’t leave their rooms. Mom just cries about her “lost son” Tom. Tom, who should be here helping me, helping us

The world ends tomorrow so I guess I’ll just say this now. I don’t know if I’ve completely accepted that this is the end. I mean, the fact that I’ve stocked food and haven’t done something insane yet kinda proves that I’m hoping tomorrow is coming and yet I I don’t know if I really believe that we are going to survive this. I want to live and I keep thinking that tomorrow we all die. I hate this. I just wish things could go back to the way they were and yet somehow this all feels like the way it was – taking care of mom and Laura ever since dad walked out, trapped in this house while Tom just does whatever the fuck he wants. I never wanted to die here and yet I guess that’s what’s going to happen. Stuck in the same damn place until I die still doing this crap. Sometimes I think I hate them for all this, but they’re still family, they’re all I got. We are all we have. I guess this is just the way it is

 May 21

We’re alive. I don’t understand it, but we are. I haven’t gone outside yet but I’m pretty sure I heard people screaming or cheering so I guess that means other people survived too. Maybe that means those guys Tom went with really did save us. Maybe they really did stop Armageddon. Now we need to survive this. Our food supply is low and the electricity still down along with the brown water now coming from the pipes. They were pounding on the door, trying to get in. Goddamn animals. I don’t know how well my baseball bat can defend us, but its worth a try. I don’t know what they want or what they’ll do to get it. We barely have enough for ourselves

May 23

It’s been two days and Tom still hasn’t come back. Our water is gone. I haven’t eaten all day (I had to lie to Mom just to get her to eat). I’m going to have to go outside to look but I’m scared of what I’ll find, or if I’ll even have the strength to just pry the boards down. They haven’t come back since yesterday when I yelled at them to leave (I’m just hoping they believed that I had really did have a gun). Everyone is probably having as hard a time as we are and I don’t want to see what they’ll do to save themselves. I mean, we are desperate too and I guess I’m scared of what I’ll have to do to save not just mom and Laura, but myself

May 24

I don’t understand how this happened. I don’t know what time it was, but they broke through. I didn’t wake up until I noticed the light shining through the door which they managed to break in half. I couldn’t lift my bat to beat them back much less lift myself off the floor. All I remember before I woke again was Mrs. Luke’s face looking down at mine (she’s the lady I think I helped with her groceries a couple months ago). Then I was on a mat under one of those pop-up tents in the park down the street. Someone came by and gave me some water to drink. The smell of the soup though made me puke on the floor. Mrs. Luke later said it was because it’d been a long time since I’d eaten. I think she meant “actual food”. I spent the rest of the day on that mat

Oh, I heard rumors too. The government was escorting the people who saved us back to their homes. I can’t wait til Tom gets back home

May 27

It’s been a couple of days and Tom still isn’t back yet. Things are getting along better than I ever imagined. Usually they send me and a couple other guys out to scavenge for supplies and also to let the people still boarded up in their houses know that there are other survivors. I’ve never been there to break open doors (mostly it’s the older group that does it). There doesn’t seem to be any fighting for stuff which I expected. We just kinda forgot about all that stuff before we thought the world was going to end (even that guy at the market apologized to my mom this morning before breakfast). Mom and Laura seem to be getting along a lot better now too, even helping Mrs. Luke and the others with all the chores we all need to do to get through the day

I heard that Jack guy lives just a couple hours away, but I’ll have to travel by foot. I let mom and Laura know that I’ll be leaving tomorrow morning. I need to know where Tom is

May 28

I went to see Jack. It took me half the day to bike where I was told he lived. Strange, I never would’ve thought that it looked a lot like my neighborhood. A small suburb looking place. His brother Kyle was in the yard and he showed me to Jack’s room. He said he hasn’t left there since the day he returned. I was expecting him to be some weirdo like I first saw outside out house just over a week ago, but instead he was just quiet, sitting on his bed and staring at the wall. Jack said that he expected more people soon. I asked about Tom. He said he liked Tom, that he had one of the most interesting reasons for coming – that it was all he could do. Tom wouldn’t say more, but Jack said he understood, as if such a vague reason was all he needed. He wouldn’t tell me his reason, but his brother Kyle assured me it too was stupid. After that, Jack wouldn’t speak; he just went back to staring at the wall, though I’m not sure if his eyes ever stopped staring at it.

I’ve been thinking about those words my entire trip back and I still can’t shake the possibility that Jack was full of shit. All he could do?! That’s ridiculous. He could’ve stayed. That’s one thing he could’ve done. But then maybe he couldn’t. The more I think about it now, especially with all the work we need to do now just for our group to survive. Tom never would’ve been any help to us, neither now nor during what we thought was the end. Is that what you meant?

Finally decided to try my hand at epistolary style (though this would be a character's diary rather than letters, but close enough)....I really need to start looking for a job