I woke up in the morning to the sound of car alarms and breaking glass. I quickly got dressed and prepared a backpack with some of my most precious belongings. Among them were photo albums and letters from my loved ones. I exited the apartment and left the door open; I knew I wasn’t coming back. As I began walking towards Hope Street I managed to capture a few things on film, such as car crashes, fires and objects falling from above like snow. It snowed ashes, pieces of paper, dirt and debris. On a few corners I saw riots and people entering buildings and stealing things for their own convenience. It seemed like the whole world was panicking, and out of desperation, people were breaking all the rules to save themselves. Just a few blocks away from my point of destination I entered a grocery store in attempts of finding an anniversary gift. All the aisles were empty with the exception of a few housing materials here and there. I found the Hallmark aisle almost intact and quickly grabbed the prettiest card I could find.
A few steps away from the exit was a cop unsuccessfully trying to stop a group from setting the store on fire. When I saw the flames covering the cash registers and spreading towards the whole front area, I hurried to the nearest door and got out safely. Walking through a multitude of people, I remembered the back aisles were filled with families trying to steal some food. I also remembered hearing a baby crying. Despite the horrible thoughts of their misfortune, I continued to move forward and heard gun shots and people screaming. The multitude ran towards the grocery store where the gun was shot, and I got pushed back and fell. I covered myself as much as I could, but all I really cared about was protecting my backpack filled with memories. When the street was emptied, I got back up and fixed my hair and dress.
I continued to walk towards Hope Street until I finally reached my destination, and there I saw him smiling at me, a few bruises here and there. He tightly took grasp of my hand and we squeezed in through other groups of people who were shouting and crying from despair. We entered a coffee shop that was still intact and empty. There, we prepared ourselves some coffee, hot chocolate and bagels. We sat by the window and had breakfast together. From inside we could see cops and military men getting shot to death. The groups of people outnumbered the military forces, and so the riots continued as well as the stealing, killing, the confusion of it all and as a result, the suicides. We saw a man throwing himself off his apartment building and landing on a car. We also saw people pushing others in front of cars, and a group of children who separated from their families and had no way of being regrouped. The children stood against the wall and cried for their parents, but no one came to them. Instead, everyone ran away from the fires and shootings, in hopes of finding shelter on a safer street.
I gave him the anniversary card along with a picture of us in Promise Mountain, where we had our first kiss. He turned red and smiled at me, with his hand searching his pocket. When he took his hand out, I saw a ring and a few rose petals. He explained he couldn’t find any flower stands in the city, and all that was left were rose petals and stems lying around, so he gathered the petals and cleaned them up for me. He placed the ring on my finger as the ashes glazed our window, and I cried of happiness and sadness at the same time, for I knew our short engagement would come to an end sooner than expected. Our eyes fixed on each other for a few minutes, as if we were having a conversation inside our minds. On our last minute of silence, we felt the air getting warm. Quickly exiting the store, we looked back and saw that a fire had broken out at the second floor, quickly devouring the concrete that had once been our shelter and comfort zone.
We resumed our escape out of the city towards Promise Mountain, our second and final point of destination. Our escape had been planned a few days before, when we realized things weren’t going to get better, when we realized this was the final stage of our short lives. At the end of the main avenue we saw a cleaner atmosphere, with less people and less damage. We knew it was all an illusion though, for outside the city a million military planes waited to enter and ambush what was left. I began guessing what was waiting for us outside the city: B-52’s, stealth fighters, dive bombers, and interceptors. Perhaps there were military men waiting for us on the ground, as if bombs weren’t enough, but when we finally got out, there was nothing. Promise Mountain was only a few minutes away by foot, and we ran as fast as we could to reach that piece of heaven that awaited us in hellish times.
Echoes of explosions could be heard and they were getting near. We knew what that meant, and so we held each other’s hands tighter than ever and began climbing. My dress got torn and I sprained an ankle, but that didn’t matter anymore. We finally reached our heaven, and sat down on the edge of our first kiss. The view was amazing yet monstrous; a view that had once been covered with trees, beautiful skyscrapers and blue skies was now drowning in fumes. The blazing fires covered most of the city, and the ashes rose up creating a thick gray mass of human residue and debris. A massive wave of melancholy rushed inside me and I cried in his arms. I heard a whisper in my ear that said: “At this point in life there’s no point in living, but I’ll follow you anywhere, whether here or there, whether life or death”.
I looked down at my ring and asked him: Do you take me to be your wife? Will you love me, comfort me, honor me and keep me? In sickness and in health, for richer or poorer? For better or for worse, in sadness and in joy, being sickness, poverty, and sadness most likely? To cherish and continually bestow upon me your heart’s deepest devotion, forsaking all others, keeping yourself only unto me as long as we both shall live, however long that may be? Will you really? He smiled and nodded, and it was there where we got married. It was there where we found comfort amongst chaos, and as the planes flew above us throwing bombs that painted gray all over our paradise, we gave each other one last kiss and prepared for our ultimate end.
- by Jennifer Perez
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