"No Matter Where You Go, There You Are" - The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai

He sat starring straight in front of himself, at a colourless wall that seemed to have no beginning and no end. He ran the thought through his head over and over again, he could not believe that today was the day that everyone had said would never come. It was over, everything, not just his insignificant little life, but everything. The years he had wasted doing nothing, not making a difference had finally come back to haunt him. There were no excuses, there was not plenty of time ahead to achieve something, he had wasted his life, and like so many others he would die without accomplishing anything. But want did it matter? There would be no one left to mourn him, no one left to say that he was a good man, no one even to remember that he had ever existed.

Again and again he ran the thought over inside is head, what else could he do, there was no time left in which to do anything. There was one hour, perhaps two before it would all come to an end. An hour before all the suffering of people around the world would come to an end, an hour before the petty squabbling between nations would finally cease.

Finally he got up, in a slow sloth-like movement which seemed to have no purpose. He looked around at his surroundings, the home he had built up for himself after his wife and died. It was not much but it was his own and he was proud of it. It had taken him years to get over his wife’s death, if it had not been for his brother showing him what he had become, he would have wasted even more of his life than he already had. Finally, he realised that he had achieved something, that his life was not disaster that only moments ago he though that it was, he had saved himself and that was enough for him.

He moved over to the window and gazed out, he saw a panic. People were running around without the slightest reason of why and other were simply crying, overwhelmed by the magnitude of what was about to occur. He had, on the other hand, pulled himself together. It had been several hours since he had been informed about what was to transpire, several hours for him to go through the same emotions that the people outside his window were showing at this precise moment. Instead of wasting his last hour on the Earth, not believing what was about to happen, he would use it to his advantage, as it would never come again.

The dire straits that the population outside was in was too much for him, he backed away from the window closing the curtains as he went. He headed for the drinks cabinet, there he would find something not only to make him feel better but something that that would not fight the future. As he poured himself a glass of whiskey the ground beneath his feet began to shake, it had begun.

The tremor lasted for perhaps a few minutes, but the intensity of the shaking had been immense. As he picked himself up and dusted down his plaster-ridden clothes, he saw through his broken window that several buildings had collapsed, taking with them, no doubt, several hundred people who would be sparred what would happen within the next hour. That whiskey that he had poured himself was no longer something that could be drunk, it along with the rest of the contents of his drinks cabinet were now forming a large pool of liquid on the carpet. For a second he felt angry that he would be denied even one last drink before it ended, but it was ironic that in a world where you never got everything that you wanted that even now the same was true. Seeing the funny side to it made him feel better, but he still yearned for that final drink.

Perhaps a bar would be still open, it was worth a try and anyway even if it was not he could still break in and get one, surely no one would mind. As he headed for the door he picked up his coat, it was raining hard outside, a side effect of what was about to occur. He stepped outside into the lashing rain, it bit into his face like a hungry animal. On any other day he would have stayed at home. Heading down the street he heard gunfire, someone had committed suicide and there were scores of people still running about aimlessly, it seemed strange to him that they would choose to spend their last hours panicking about something they could not control.

He let them be and continued down the street, another tremor hit, it was not as large as the previous one but it did seem to knock out the electricity supply to this street at least. Eventually he arrived at a bar, it was not his usual but it would do under the circumstances. The door was open, so at least he would die knowing that he had never committed a major crime. Inside it was like the majority of bar that he had been in, run down and a bit sleazy, but standing behind the bar was a man who was busy trying to get television reception on a small hand held portable. Eventually the man looked up and acknowledged his presence, the man poured him a drink and he took his coat off and sat down. The man asked him what his name was and he replied "Harry, Harry Kym, you?" The barman took a moment to think of a reply, as if he was struggling to remember what his own name was and then responded "Tom Paris". They both sat for several minutes continuing with their respective tasks, Harry drinking his beer and Tom trying to get television reception. They were both in different worlds, one trying hard not to accept what was about to happen and the other just sitting enjoying his drink. It did not matter that neither of them wanted to talk, they were both just glad that when the end came they would not be alone.

Eventually Tom gave up trying to get television reception and just sat opposite from Harry with a beer in his hand and a look resignation on his face. Looking out through the grimy windows and out on to the street, Harry noticed that the sky was beginning to change colour, it had changing from a blue-grey to a yellow-orange colour. It was kind of spectacular, it made sense that the end would be just as dramatic and amazing as the bang that had created everything in the first place. The minutes passed and the tremors became more frequent and devastating, Harry thought to himself that the bar must have one hell of a foundation to withstand the tremors. As it seemed relatively unscathed compared to some of the buildings he could see through the hole were the window was only minutes ago. The din of people screaming had subsided now, perhaps they were beginning to come to term with things or perhaps everyone was dead, killed by falling masonry or shot dead by former friends who had gone mad. It did not matter, he was just glad that the noise had stopped.

The temperature had risen remarkably since had had arrived at the bar, it was almost tropical, it was one of the things he had been told to expect before the television broadcasts broke up last night. Tom was beginning to become agitated he was shuffling around, drinking bottle after bottle of beer in quick succession, obviously he had had a relapse into thinking how to ovoid the end. Suddenly he pulled shotgun from underneath the bar, placed it in his mouth, and before Harry had a chance to stop him, he blew his head off. Harry was alone once again, although he had wished that Tom would have been with him until the end, he was contented by the fact that Tom was not suffering anymore.

Harry got up from his barstool and headed towards the exit, as he opened the door the biting rain gnawed at him once again. Out on the street the human cost became apparent to Harry, there were bodies everywhere, some had been killed by masonry and some had been electrocuted by fallen mains cables and others had simply been killed by other human beings. Harry tried not to let it get to him, it was extremely difficult, and he wondered what had happened to his brother and his family. He hoped that they were still alive living out there last few moments together, that they were not alone like himself.

Harry looked up towards the sun and at that moment it happened, suddenly instead of the bright orange disc that was usually there, was a rapidly fading red blob that rather looked like it was painted onto the sky. He turned his attention towards the horizon, and there rapidly heading towards him was a massive shockwave. It appeared to eating everything in its path, but as Harry knew well, it was vaporising everything it came into contact with. Before long the Earth would join both Mercury and Venus as planets that had once existed and he thought one day the entire remnants of the solar system would just be a statistic in some other civilisations astronomy records. So much for the human race eventually destroying itself, it had been taken away from the equation before it had a chance to. In fact it may as well never have existed, nothing would remain to say that we had been once here.

Harry stood tall and watched the shockwave come closer and closer, within seconds he would be gone, erased from history. He began to cry, finally it had got to him but it was to late for him to end his own life, he would have to let nature do that for him. The light from the wave began so bright that it blinded Harry, he would not even be able to see his own demise. That final injustice seemed so fitting for a planet that had been so unfair. Before Harry could finish the thought he felt the heat from the shockwave and he was gone.

//agi. [agi@fsmail.net]